BOOK IX. Chapter III. 1857. July 30. Considerations which influenced Neill; and which made him regard with dismay the retirement of Havelock on Onáo. 500 NEILL'S FEELINGS AT HAVELOCK'S RETREAT. pected for a week. Under these circumstances, and in view of the one fact that on the 30th he received from General Wilson, commanding before Dehlí, a letter intimating that it might be necessary for him to retire on Karnál, and of the other that his own position was threatened from the west, it became more than ever necessary to show a bold front, and even, whenever feasible, to strike a blow. The one thing necessary for the success of Neill's views in this respect was that Havelock should continue to move successfully on to Lakhnao. This being the case, and the character of the man being considered, some idea may be conceived of the fury which seized him when he received, on the night of the 31st, a letter from General Havelock, informing him of his retrograde movement, and that he could not advance until he should receive a reinforcement of a thousand European infantry and another battery of guns. A second letter merely asked for all the infantry that could be spared and half a battery. With the demand for guns came, too, the information that of the fifteen pieces taken from the enemy every one had been destroyed. "Our prestige here is gone," records Neill in his journal. The letter from General Wilson was bad enough,-but that was only a possibility-it might not happen. But this retirement, the death-blow to all his hopes, had actually occurred. Who, he asked himself, was to blame for it? He did not take long to answer. He had no love for Havelock. He had felt deeply the slight, as he considered it, that he, the second in FIND VENT IN A LETTER TO HAVELOCK. He 501 command, had not been invited to assist at the councils of war which had been held; that although asked to communicate unreservedly with Havelock, he had been told to address his Adjutant-General. These things had chafed him. And now this retreat had come to upset all his calculations. He could not restrain himself. had been asked to communicate "unreservedly with Havelock through his staff. He determined to write "unreservedly" direct. He did so. * The following is the text They are now joined by the of the most salient part of 42nd N. I., which have passed Neill's letter:-"I late last on. I could not move out and night received yours of 6 p.m. intercept them. You talk yesterday. I deeply regret of advancing as soon as reinyou have fallen back one foot. forcements reach you. You The effect on our prestige is require a battery and a thouvery bad indeed. Your camp sand European infantry. As was not pitched yesterday be- regards the battery, half of fore all manner of reports Olpherts's will be in this mornwere rife in the city-that you ing; the other half started had returned to get more yesterday or to-day from Alláhguns, having lost all you took ábád. This will detain you away with you. In fact, the five or six days more. As for belief amongst all is that you the infantry you require they have been defeated and forced are not to be had, and if you back. It has been most un- are to wait for them Lakhnao fortunate your not bringing will follow the fate of Kánhany guns captured from the púr. Agra will be invested: enemy. The natives will not this place also: the city will believe that you captured one. be occupied by the enemy. I The effect of your retrograde have no troops to keep them movement will be very in- out, and we will be starved jurious to our cause every- out. You ought not to remain where, and bring down upon a day where you are. When us many who would otherwise the iron guns are sent to you, BOOK IX. Chapter III. 1857. July 31. Communi cates his opinions to Havelock, BOOK IX. Chapter III. 1857. August 2. and is rebuked and makes an amende. Havelock receives a small reinforcement, Havelock replied in the indignant tone which might have been expected. By this time the first burst of Neill's anger was over, and the rejoinder he sent to Havelock's reply was pronounced by the high authority to which it was referred-the acting Commander-in-Chief, to be "perfectly unexceptionable." The matter was then allowed to drop, but the correspondence had produced between the two generals a coolness which, whilst it did not interfere with co-operation for the good of the State, could yet never be forgotten. On the 3rd of August Havelock was reinforced by Olpherts's half-battery and a company of the 84th. Hopes had been held out to him that the 5th Fusiliers and the 90th Light Infantry would reach Kánhpúr early in August. Had the Government of India only taken the precaution to disarm the native regiments at Dánápúr early in June, this might have been possible. But the fatal trust in men known to be untrustworthy had kept the 5th Fusiliers in Bihár and had here sharp, for there is much my command, be his experito be done between this and ence what it may. Understand Agra and Delhí." In his reply, this distinctly, and that a conHavelock described this letter sideration of the obstruction as "the most extraordinary that would arise to the public letter he had ever perused." service at this moment alone "There must be an end," he prevents me from taking the went on to say, "to these pro- stronger step of placing you ceedings at once. I wrote to under arrest. You now stand you confidentially on the state warned. Attempt no further of affairs. You send me back dictation. I have my own a letter of censure of my reasons, which I will not measures, reproof and advice communicate to anyone, and for the future. I do not want I alone am responsible for and will not receive any of the course which I have them from an officer under pursued." This BOOK IX. Chapter III. August 4. 1857. into Oudh. the enemy Bashíratganj. stopped the onward progress of the 90th.* culpable weakness made itself felt in Lakhnao as well as in Bihár. But the disappointment only roused Havelock to renewed exertion. On the and renews 4th of August, having then about fourteen hun- his advance dred effective men under his command, two heavy guns (24-pounders), two 24-pounder howitzers, and a battery and a half of guns, he started a second time in the direction of the besieged Residency. Having heard that the town of Bashíratganj had been re-occupied in force he bivouacked that night at Onáo. Leaving that He finds place early the following morning he found the strongly enemy occupying a position very similar to that posted at from which he had dislodged them on the 29th of July. This time he determined there should be no mistake; that if the enemy would only wait the completion of his turning movement, they should not escape. Havelock then ordered the advance by the road of the heavy guns, supported by the 1st Madras Fusiliers and the 84th Foot; whilst the 78th Highlanders, the Sikhs, and Maude's battery, should turn the village on its left. The heavy guns, commanded by Lieutenant Again atCrump of the Madras Artillery, a very able and annihilate gallant officer, speedily dislodged the enemy from them. the outer defences. As they retreated our infantry advanced. Meanwhile the turning movement greatly disquieted them. They saw that if carried out it would entrap them. Bewildered by the They flee in "So great is the alarm," Fusiliers have been retained, wrote a journalist at the time, though grievously required to "that H.M.'s 90th and 5th reinforce Káhnpúr." tempts to a panic, BOOK IX. Chapter III. 1857. August 5. and their position is gained. Considera tions which weighed at ture with Havelock. 504 BEATS THE ENEMY AT BASHI RATGANJ. progress it was making and much embarrassed by the firing in front of them they were stricken by panic and fled across the causeway. This flight saved them from certain and entire destruction. The turning movement had not been completed. Still it had advanced so far that in their flight across the causeway the enemy came under the fire of the guns of Maude's battery and were mown down in numbers. The heavy guns continued all this time their destructive fire, silencing the guns of the enemy and forcing them back. The rebels did indeed for some time longer hold villages to the right and left of the town, but in the end they were forced out of these. Still, though the enemy was beaten, "the whole transaction," to use the language "to employed by Lieutenant-Colonel Tytler to Sir Patrick Grant, "was most unsatisfactory, only two small iron guns, formerly captured by us, and destroyed, in our ideas, being taken." The loss of our force had not been large. Two this conjunc- had been killed and twenty-three wounded. The loss of the rebels was estimated at three hundred. But there were weighty considerations to stay further advance. Cholera had broken out in the camp. This disease and fever had placed seventyfive men on the sick list. In the action at Bashíratganj one-fourth of the gun ammunition *These were the guns cap- mandant of Artillery; so imtured on the 29th of July. perfectly, however, that the General Havelock reported enemy again fired out of regarding them that they had them." been "dismantled by the Com |