SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. (Memoirs of Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, K.C.B.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1378, 26 February 1861, Page 6

SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. (Memoirs of Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, X. C.8.)

, Qontinwcd'frorti our latt. Major Havelook was now appointed Deputy-Adjutent-General to the Queen's troopp at Bombay,' and continued there for three years, though much enfeebled in health and troubled in his mind about the prospects of his family, and by desires and fears connected with a voyage to England, which was recommended to him for the restoration of his health. The second Sikh war which Ilavelook prophesied in 1846 did not break out till 1848. At the discreditable battle of Rainnuggur Havelock lost his brother William in a gallant anticipation of the Balaklava charge — and he seems "to have felt the loss, though to judge from the memoirs he held little correspondence and kept no intimacy with the other members of his family. Soodalpore, Chillianwalla, Goojerat, came one after the other in quiet succession, but the news found Havelock at Bombay. An attempt which he made to join the army in the Punjab was frustrated when he had got half way between Indoro and Agra by Lord Gough, who ordered him back. Ho had now exchanged into Her Majesty's 53d, and had been " weaving body and mind to rags over hard work in a bad climate," so that in 1849 he was compelled by sickness, after 26 years' residence in India, to go to England, which he reached on the sth of November He was_ received with some distinction — was elected of the United Service Clvb — was presented at the Levee in Maich, 1850, by the Duke of Wellington, — and was piesent at the banquets given to Lord Gough by the Service aud by the Court of He says: — " In looking at the Duke of Wellington and listening to his speech, nearly all that we have read of the ruined powers of Malborough, after his first paralytic seizure, seemed to be realized. I never witnessed so affecting a spectacle of mouldeiing greituess lie i<- so deaf that he seemed to mo to uttai prolonged inarticulate sounds without being aware of it. He begins, but rarely concludes a sentence, and where he bieaks off m the period the spectator doubts from his manner whether he will commence another or fall down apoplectic in the next efforts to begin one. The Marquis of Anglesea spoke clearly, and with a fine aristocratic intonation and emphasis, lord Hardinge's voice was sonorous as a bell, and his few short sentences put you in full possession of all that he meant to say. At the London Tavern Lord John Russell delivered himself m brief, slow, a,nd measurer! periods, taking tune to think as he spoke ;it was a pi. .arne to listen to him. But when ■Sir Robert Peel arose, and be-^n to wind forth his classical and persuasive words, easily, fluently, lhetoric^lly, jou saw before you at once the man fitted to govern this great country, ever ready for every emergency, with a large and strong grasp of mind, and inward sense of superiority, calculated to subdue eveiything but the prejudices of the pocket. England appears to me to be more intensely aristocratic than ever. The great changes are, the rapidity of communication by locomotives, the extraordinary increase of the power of the press, and improved morality »nd decency of habits of the middle and lowest classes, and the accumulation of unions for the promotion of industry, com! fort, aud decidedly of religion. Into the midst of thi* a conqueror old or young, a Lord Gough, or a Major Edwardes, dropped suddenly, becomes, as formerly, a nine days' wonder, but the mercurial surface of society will not long retain the impression. The wealthy and the great, under any pretext, are enthely wrapped up in themselves and their own interests. Avarice is the great idol, greater even than fame just now." He renewed his acquaintance and old friend ships with his schoolfellows, made a tour among the German watering places, and seems to have been impressed by the charms of quiet so much as to have " serious thoughts of retiring altogether" on fullpay, if possible, thus " prematurely throwing up the game." Of the Court of Directors, whom he was soliciting for an appointment for his son Joshua, he wntes: — ' The intervention of the Court, as a body, betw een the Ministers a.id India is advantageous to the country nb preventing party influences reaching it, saving the prvtionage fiom being entirely jobbed away for votes in Parliament, and affording a chance of some knowledge of lnd.a being brought to the task of governing it. Bug the privileges of the pioprietors of stock are a pure and unmixed mischief. As a Court their proceedings ufe and ever have been, absolutely ludicrous , they arc disposed rather to elect jobbers than the many great and good men who have subserved the interests of their country in India, and would display the most übeful t->lent in managing its affairs if they belonged to its Home Government. The Company has long since oeved to trade, yet city interest continues to return luei chants, bankers, shipowners, and captains, with now and then a petulant old soldier, who never comin.uided in any battle in India, but is connected with the piopnetonal families." I>onn was his head-quarters for the greater, pirt of 1851, and when there another phase of the misery to which, the poor " neglected licut.nant" had been so often exposed came upon him. Let the friends of purchase read what he says :—: — "I mentioned in one of my letters that I had < cipeJ the honors of being once more purchased over 1 1 my old age by the kindnesb of Norns, who had Jo lged the money for my lieutenant-colonelcy. We v eie too late, however. Byrne had already come under an engagement to retire, and Major Mansfield had, i T am informed, unconditionally paid him all the i.io icy over and above the regulated price. When I lil. une aware of this I was, of course, in a dilemma _ I \\ ould have been hard upon old Byrne, who is about h if a degree more broken than myself, to stop the purchiw in this stage, and if I had taken the heutenantcnlnnelLy it must have been at the expence of Major -iliMsfield, who had without reservation paid heavily ioi it in hard cash, and would not have got it after all. .Toitunately there vas, time to withdraw my name once ■■>ioi« from the purchase list, I suppose Byrne's resigmt'on will arrive via Southampton, and that on the J nday theieafter I shall see a youth of some 16 years' st vi ling in the army gazetted over my head as heufr 'lank-colonel Major Mansfield is, as lam told — for I never made his acquaintance — a clever man and a jood officer. I was purchased over, as I used to say, by thice sots and two fools, so that I presume I must pcr&ume myself that it is a pleasant variety to be supu -,cded by a man of sense and gentlemanly habits. Be tin J as it may, the horror of an old soldier on the point of having his juiuoi , put over him is so sensitive that if I had no family to support, aid the right of choice in my own hands, I would not serve one hour longer." His hopes of a colonelcy, of a Tyrolese or Swiss cottage, and a quiet close to his days, engaged in holy contemplation or active works of duty, were not to be realized, and at the cad of the year he was obliged to return to India, and to make up his mind to a long, and as it proved an eternal separation in this world from a wife and family to whom he was tenderly attached. The end of the year saw him established once more in bis office at Bombay, and he was rejoiced by the appointment of his kon Henry to the Adjutancy of the 10th Foot.' «' He may well be glad to get that before 22 whioh I gladly accepted at 40." On the lamented decease of Colonel Mountain, at the close of 1853, Havelockapplied for the post of Adj utant-General of Queen's troops in India ; but it was not to be. His friends did their best,— "Nevertheless I see, almost beyond a doubt, that Markham is to be the man. He is the son, I believe, of a bishop, or archbishop, who was a tutor to some of the Royal family, and is, moreover, I fancy, backed by Lord Baglan." Havelock was appointed by Lord Hardinge to the Quartermaster-Generalship, which he accepted as "an additional mercy," because at 60 ycais of age he was at last to have no work, and nearly 3,000Z a-year. By the brevet on the 20th of June he was gazetted full Colonel, and when Colonel Markham was Bum-

moned to the Crimea, which h« reached with shattered health only to, injure rather than to add to his reputation, Havelook was appointed to succeed him, the "gr6.it olaimes"of Lugard having been in some degree mot by making' him Aide-de-Camp to the Queon. Two or three years rolled placidly away, %id the echoes of- the tremendous conflict before Sebaotopol; >are soarcely to be traced throughout the pages! of Havelock's correspondence, which for the most part relate to promotion, which at one time threatened to come too soon, as, if lie were made a Major-General, he might bo deprived of employment, and ho could not afford to be on the shelf for a week. In the summer of 1856, he, " gray-bearded and neaily toothless," set out with General Aason to make an extended tour by Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Meerut, up to Vesbawur, intending to return to Calcutta in March, 1858. War was proclaimed with Persia, and Sir J. Outran! advised Lord Elpbinstone to recommend Havelock for the command of the second division, ignorant at tho time that his own name had been specially mentioned by Havelock to Goneial Anson as that of the fittest officer to command the expedition. Havelock, induced by " the hope of piomotion in days when 15 Crimeans — 10 junior to me — have been made major-generalsatone swoop," accepted it, from " his trust in God," though Ihe would have preferred a post in the NorthWest Provinces. With the details of the expedition we are all familiar. In the elaborate plans of operations drawn up by Havelock there are many evidences of great strategical power. In every one there is a flank attack indicated. He writes in good spirits; in his account of the action of Mohuinrah he alludes to his belief in a special protection, and he writes, " I felt throughout the Lord Jesus was at my side," " God is with me," and he informs General Anson that "as soon as this is over I am ready for China." But the great drama in which he was to play so conspicuous a part was nearly ready for the astonishment of the world. General Ansou, on the 15th of March, wrote to Havelock : — "We have been, and still are, in tiouble here with disaffection in regiments sn account a£ the cartridge question. The 19th Native Infantry are in open mutiny, a stronger case thau any I know on record to India ; the Government will deal with it, I hope, judiciously. I only know the facts, but very few paifoculars as to who or what is to be blamed There are generally in these matters faults every where, but open mutiny cannot be passed over, or even partially excused," Lord Elphiustone, proscicut of the danger, pressed on the Government the propriety of ordering every English soldier from Persia back to India, and Lord Canning left it to Sir James Outram to take whatever course he thought fit in the matter. Outram at once decided to send back every European except the artillery, navelock's division was broken up, and he sailed for Bombay, where he arrived on j|^29th of May, and heard. astounding intelligence that that the native had mutinied at Meerut, Ferozepore, and ni^m, and that the fortress at Delhi, one of the few we possessed in India, was, in the hands of the military I insurgents, while disaffection seemed to be spreading I throughout the Upper Piovince'" As the ronte by Indore to Umballa was not safe, he could not join General Anson, who was marching down on Delhi by land, and he, therefore, pioceeded to Calcutta by sea on June Ist, and was nearly lost in tho wreck of the Erin, of which he characteristically says: — " The madness of man threw us on shoie . the mercy of God found us a soft place Caltura." At Madras, which he reached in the Fire Queen on June 13tb, he heard of General Anson's death and of the appointment of Sir Patrick Grant to succeed him, and he arrived with that officer on June 17th, at Calcutta, having spent part of the time in preparing an able and elaborate "memorandum on the mutinies, and on the operations requisite to suppress and punish them," which the rapid spread of disaffection rendered only partially applicable to the state of affairs on landing. In three days after his arrival Havelock was selected to command a movable column with which he was to advance along the Main Trunk Road to liberate the Europeans surrounded in the Cawnpore intrenchments, and thence to relieve those who were besieged in the Residency of Lucknow Benares was held only by 190 of Her 'Majesty's 10th and three guns of Olphert's •battery. The Ist Madras Fusilcers, under Neill, had been already ordered up to save the place, in which the 37th Native Infantry, the Loodianah Sikhs, and 13th Irregular Cavalry wore evincing signs of turbulence Arriving on the 3id of June, by " examples of extraordinary severity and the unrestrained use of the gallows," Neill struck terror into the heaits of the malcontents, and thence marched to Allahabad, were the 6th Native Infantry, on June 6th, had mutinied and murdered their officers under circumstances of great atrocity, and where the fort, on which so much depended, was in great jeopardy. Neill arrived on the 11th of June, and burnt the disaffected portion of the town, hung every " malignant," and " diffused a salutaiy dread" over tbe country and along the Great Trunk Road in the neighbourhood. Havelock left Calcutta on the 25th of June, reached Benares on the 28th, and Allahabad on the 30th of June, where he fonnd a column of 400 Europeans, 300 Sikhs, 120 Native Irregular Cavalry, and two 9-pound-ers, preparing to start for Cawnpore under Major Renaud, but while Havelock was collecting the means of transport to enable him to follow them intelligence was brought to him, on the 3rd July, thatthegarrison of Cawnpore had been barborously massacred. Ho appears to have received it without much expression of resentment or indignation, and to have regarded the news in its strategical bearings- "I advance as soon as I can unite 1,400 British infantry to six well equipped guns." To Renaud hewrites, " HaltatLohanga (the end of the railway), and keep a good look out to rear, front, and flanks ;" but he did not keep his promise of marching to reinforce him on the 4th of July, ashecould notgetcarriage. To make up for an absolute want of cavalry, he had raised a little band of volunteers, who were placed under the commang of Major Barrow, now the Chief Commissioner of, Oude. On the 7th of July his column was complete in organization. It consisted of about 1,000 I bayonets of Her Majesty's 64th, 78th, 84th, and iscMadras Fuaileers, 130 Brasyer's Sikhs, 18 troopers Volunteer Cavalry, six guns, and it set out that night, amid "t" t the malignant scowls" of the natives, on the road to Cawnpore. Ronaud, who, meantime, bad been pushing on from Lobanga,]in consequence of orders from Government at Calcutta, where tbe fall of Cawnpore was not believed, was now in considerable danger from the advance of an overwhelming force of the Nana's adherents from Cjwnporo and Havelook was obliged to force the march of his column— many footsore and youthful soldiers — through rain and mud, till the 11th of July, when he met Renaud beyond Synee, and, marching on with ia column, encamped four miles from Futtehpore at 7 a.m.

on tho 12th: Theenemy,- who' were intent on devouring Major 'Ren audy- force, arrived soon afterwards,' and at once dashed on j but instead of a small detaohment they found five regiments and eight guns draw up'tb receive. them. The battle of Futtehpore, which followed, was a type of all Ilavelook's subsequent encounters in the field.' But it was by no means an exemplifioation of Havelock's general tactics, for he marched' against them right in front, and in ten minutes Enfield lifles and cannon had taken, in his own words, "all oonceit out of them." It must be admitted the resistance was contemptible, for not one British soldier fell. In the order of the day the General ascribes the victory to the British Artillery, to the Enfield rifie, to British pluck, and to the blessing of Almighty God ; so that Mr. Marshman is scarcely justified in remarking on the singular novelty in India of seeing an order of the day in which the blessing of Almighty God alone secured the victory. Saving halted one day, the column advanced nnd on the 15th came up with the enemy at Aong, and drove them from their position ; but scarcely had the troops halted when news was brought that' the mutineers had fallen back on thePandoo River, and had taken ground in their intrenohments, with the bridge in their hands, the destruction of which would prove a serions obstacle in the march to Cawnpore. Havelock marched his men before they had time to prepare a meal, and attacked the enemy so briskly that he frustrated their attempt to blow up thebridge, and was able to push his troops across it ere nightfall. The men were too wearied to care for mea 1 ;, and Havelock, with all his love of temperance, was obliged to writeto Allahabad, begging General Neill " to prevent the necessity of our being reduced to half-rations of rum, which would be most trying to troops exposed to the fatigue and hardships my men have endured ;" and Mr. Marshman's apology for this weakness, after all, ends in this — that Havolook considered the aid of spirits necessary to sustain their physical powers. On the 16th Havelock, advancing, attacked the enemy covering Cawnpore, in an exceedingly strong position, under the command of the Nana, by a flank movement, which ended in a direct charge of bayonets. The 78th Highlanders, supported by the Madras Fusileers, turned the enemy's left flank, while the 64th, 84th, and Sikhs broke the right and drove the enemy headlong flight to Cawnpore. Havelock bivouacked at some distancs from Cawnpore, but when they marched in next morning they found only the charnel-house, and the horrid traces of the massacre of the women and children who had been murdered when the enemy heard of the battle of the Pandoo River. Had not the column been so utterly destitute of cavalry nnd some horse guns pressing the enemy, would have given no time for the perpetration of the atrocity. It was the morning of the 17 th before the troops entered Cawnpore, and again their enemy ardent spirits, threat ened them. Havelook was obliged to buy up all the liquor, or, as he said himself, " I should scarce have a sober soldier in camp," and he was obliged to take the most stringent measures to check the spirit of plunder Sternly and sharply he spoke : — " Tho marauding in this camp exceeds the disorders which supervened during the short-lived triumph of the miscreant Nana Sahib. A Provost-Marshal has been appointed, with special instructions to hang* up in their uniforms all British soldiers that plunder " After aweekof incessantpreparation, Havelock, reinforced with a few hundred men by GeneialNeill, wasenabled toassemble 1,200 British and 300 Sikhs, with 10 guns perfectly equipped and manned, on tho left side of the Ganges, with no less an object than the relief of the beleaguered garrison of Lucknow, which was only to be attained by fighting his way through swarms of enemies in the warlike province of Oude. They passed the Ganges without resistance, but on their first march, on the 29 th of July, they eucountered, at the town of Onoa, the first corps af the enemy. (To le concluded.) O