Part 10
“General Havelock arrived before Cawnpore on the 18th July, and so eager was he to rescue the garrison (for he was not yet aware of what had happened), that he attacked the Sepoy position without delay. Ordering a charge, his gallant band rushed to the onset. Not a word was uttered until when within 100 yards of the rebels, _three deafening cheers_,--cheers such as Englishmen only can give, rang out. Then came the crash; a murderous volley of musketry and the crash of bayonets soon drove the mutineers back, and Cawnpore was taken; 1000 British troops and 300 Sikhs had put to flight 5000 of the flower of the native soldiery, with a native chief in command.
“When Havelock’s soldiers entered the assembly rooms, the blood came up over their shoes. There they found clotted locks of hair, leaves of religious books, and fragments of clothing in sickening array, while into the well outside the bodies had been rudely thrown. The horrors of that scene will never be fully known. A terrible retribution fell on the mutineers. General Neil compelled the Brahmins to wipe out, on their bended knees, the sanguinary traces of the outrages before he ordered them to execution, and when the 78th Highlanders found the mutilated remains of one of General Wheeler’s daughters, they divided the locks of hair among them, pledging each other in solemn covenant, that for every hair thus appropriated, a mutineer’s life and that alone could be the atonement. The eldest daughter of Sir Hugh Wheeler is said to have behaved in a most heroic manner; one of the natives testified that she shot five _Sepoys_ with a revolver, and then threw herself into the well.”
CAVALRY.--Of the ancients the Romans had the best cavalry. To each legion there was attached 300 cavalry in ten turmae. The Persians were famous for their horse troops--they had 10,000 horse at the battle of Marathon, B.C. 490, and 10,000 Persian cavalry at the battle of Issus, B.C. 333. Horse soldiers were early introduced into the British army. During the wars of Napoleon the strength amounted to 31,000 men. The British cavalry is divided into the household troops, dragoons, hussars and lancers. Since 1840 the number has continued, with little variation, to the present day, at about 10,000.
CEDAR RAPIDS, CANADA.--Occupied by the Americans as a small fort in 1776. Taken by a detachment of the British army, and 500 Indians, under the celebrated Indian chief Brant, _without firing a gun_. The Americans sent to its support were captured after a severe engagement.
CENTURION.--From the Latin _Centum_ a hundred. An officer who commanded 100 men in the Roman army. There were 6000 men in a legion, and hence sixty centurions. He was distinguished from the others by a branch of vine which he carried in his hand.
CEYLON.--Discovered by the Portuguese, A.D. 1505. Columbo, its capital, taken by the Dutch, in 1603, recovered in 1621; again taken 1656. Seized by the British 1795. Ceded to Great Britain by the Peace of Amiens in 1802. The British troops were treacherously massacred or imprisoned by the Adigar of Candy, June 26th, 1803. The complete sovereignty of the whole island taken by England in 1815.
CHÆRONEA, BATTLE OF.--Fought between the Athenians and Bœotians, B.C. 447. Another battle, and the great one of history, was fought here between the confederate army of Greece of 30,000, and that of the Macedonians, under Philip, amounting to 32,000, August 2nd, 338 B.C. Yet another battle was fought here between Archelaus, Lieutenant of Mithridates and Sylla, B.C. 86, when Archelaus was defeated and 110,000 Cappadocians slain.
CHAMBLY.--An important military post on the River Richelieu, Canada. It was often attacked by the Iroquois Indians. In 1775 it was captured by the Americans, but retaken in 1776. It is now a small military station.
CHARLEROI, BATTLES OF.--Great battles in several wars have been fought near this town; the chief in 1690 and 1794. (_See Fleurus._) Besieged by Prince of Orange in 1672, and again invested by the same Prince, with 60,000 men, in 1677, but he was obliged to retire. Near to the place is Ligny--(which see)--memorable at the battle of Waterloo.
CHARLESTOWN.--_Massachusetts._--Burnt by the British forces under General Gage, January 17th, 1775. English fleet here repulsed with great loss, June 28th, 1776. Taken by the British, May 7th, 1779.
CHARLESTON.--_South Carolina_.--Besieged by the British troops in March 1780, and surrendered in May 13th following, with 6000 prisoners. Evacuated by the British, April 14th, 1783. Famous during the wars of Secession. The South Carolina Convention assembled here, March 26th, 1861. A battle was fought here, and the rebels or Confederates defeated, August 19th, 1861, and after experiencing all the vicissitudes of war, it was evacuated February 17th, 1865, and next day surrendered to General Gilmore.
CHATEAUGUAY.--_Canada._--To effect a junction with the army of General Wilkinson, on October 26th, 1813, General Hampton, with 3500 men pushed forward from Lake Champlain towards Montreal. At the junction of the Ontario and Chateauguay Rivers, he there met 400 Canadians under Colonel de Salaberry, who most bravely disputed his advance. By skilful management and great bravery on the part of the Canadian officers, Viger and Doucet, the Americans were compelled to retreat towards Plattsburg. Their loss was considerable, while that of the Canadians was only two men killed and sixteen wounded. Gen. Hampton returned to Plattsburg, his army having dwindled away by sickness and desertion.
CHATILLON, CONGRESS OF.--Held by the four powers allied against France, February 5th, 1814, but the negociation for peace was broken off, March 19th following.
CHAUMONT, TREATY OF.--Between Great Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia, March 1st, 1814. It was followed by the treaty of Paris, by which Napoleon abdicated, April 11th following.
CHERBOURG.--Famous for an engagement between the English and French fleets. French defeated; 21 of their ships burnt or destroyed by Admirals Rooke and Russel, May 19th, 1692. The fort, etc., destroyed by the British, who landed August, 1758. The works begun by Louis XVI, and completed by Napoleon, are proof against any armament in the world.
CHESAPEAKE, BATTLE OF THE.--Fought at the mouth of the river of this name, between the British Admiral Greaves and the French Admiral De Grasse, in the interest of the revolted States of America, 1781. The Chesapeake and Delaware, blockaded by the British in 1812. The American frigate of this name surrendered to the Shannon, British frigate, after a very severe action, June 2nd, 1813.
CHILLIANWALLAH, BATTLE OF.--_In India._--This memorable and sanguinary battle, between the Sikh forces and the British, was fought January 13th, 1849. Lord Gough commanded. The Sikhs were completely routed, but the British also suffered severely: 26 officers were killed and 66 wounded, and 731 rank and file were killed and 1446 wounded. The loss of the Sikhs was 3000 killed and 4000 wounded. This battle was followed by the attack on the Sikh camp and the army under Sheere Shing, in its position at Goojerat (which see) February 21st, 1849.
CHIPPEWA.--On the 5th July, 1814, General Ball with 2400 men gave battle here to 4000 Americans. The British fought bravely, but were obliged to retire to Lundy’s Lane, or Bridgewater, near the Falls of Niagara.
CHRYSLER’S FARM.--_Williamsburg, Canada._--On the 11th November, 1813, the Americans, under General Wilkinson, in their passage down the St. Lawrence to attack Montreal, being harassed by the Canadian forces, resolved to land and disperse them. They were 2000 strong and the Canadians 1000. After two hours of very hard fighting, in an open field, the Americans were compelled to retire, with the loss of one general, and 350 killed and wounded. Canadian loss 200. Medals were granted to the victors of this battle by the British Government.
CHINA.--“The opening of the China trade to all British subjects, by the abolition of the East India Company’s monopoly in 1833, gave rise to a series of disputes with the native rulers, which at length led to open hostilities. These disputes, relating at first mainly to the legal rights and immunities to be enjoyed by the commercial superintendents appointed by the British cabinet, came eventually to be merged in the greater question touching the traffic in opium, which had all along been in some measure declared contraband by the Imperial Government. It was not, however, peremptorily prohibited till 1836; and even afterwards, through the connivance of the inferior authorities, an active smuggling trade continued to be carried on till 1839, when the Imperial Commissioner Lin, determined on its forcible suppression, seized the persons of the British merchants at Canton, and of Captain Elliot, the superintendent. That functionary was then compelled, by threats of personal violence to himself and his fellow-prisoners, to issue an order for the surrender of all the opium on board the vessels in the vicinity of Canton, which, to the value of above £2,000,000 sterling, was accordingly given up to the Chinese, who destroyed it,--the superintendent at the same time pledging the faith of the English government for compensation to the merchants. After various fruitless attempts to obtain satisfaction for this outrage, or even an accommodation by which the regular trade might be resumed, the cabinet of London resolved on hostilities. These, which were vigorously prosecuted, gave the Chinese a salutary lesson as to their inferiority to Europeans in military science and discipline; and they ended in a peace, signed August 29th, 1842, by which the Emperor agreed to pay $21,000,000 by way of compensation, to open five of his principal ports to our commerce, and to surrender the island of Hong-Kong to the British crown for ever.”
The following is a brief narrative from an English journal of the war of 1860 in China:--“On the 25th of June, 1860, the arrival of Sir Hope Grant at Tahlien Bay completed the muster of the British force in Northern China. General de Montauban reached Cheefoo at the same time, but his tale of men was not full; and as the Ambassadors were not due for a fortnight, it was determined that our troops should be landed. This was done, and horses and men benefited exceedingly by their sojourn on the breezy slopes which look upon the northern and southern sides of the grand harbor of Tahlien-wan, chosen for our rendezvous; notwithstanding that the hottest month of the summer was passed by the men in bell-tents, and by horses in the open.
On the 1st August, a landing was effected at Pehtang without opposition, much to our surprise and delight, for the only spot at which disembarkation was practicable is distant only 2000 yards from the snug-looking forts which appeared to protect the town; and even at this place there was a mile of water at high tide, or of more difficult mud at low water, to be traversed, before the troops could reach anything which might, by courtesy or comparison, be termed dry ground.
The 2nd brigade of 1st Division of British troops, and a French brigade, formed the first landing party. A vigorous resistance had been expected at this place; and had a fair proportion of the means lavished on the defence of the Peiho been expended on the Pehtang river, we should have had great trouble, for by nature that position is certainly the stronger. The forts on either side, and the town which adjoins that on the right bank, are built on two molecules of solid ground, which have turned up, one does not know how, at a distance of five miles inland from the bar, which closes the entrance of the river, to even the smallest gunboats, save at high water. The town is surrounded by a sea of mud, impassable to horse or man, inundated at high tide; it is connected with the comparatively higher country bordering the Peiho by a narrow causeway, which a determined and skilful enemy could hold against any force whatever, until driven successively from positions which might be established on the causeway at every hundred yards. We found, on the night of the 1st August, that the forts were deserted, and that the guns with which they bristled were but wooden “Quakers.” Next day we occupied town and forts.
Large bodies of cavalry having shown themselves in our front, a reconnaissance was made on the 3rd August, covered, in the absence of cavalry, not yet landed, by infantry and by two French 8-pounder guns, the only artillery disembarked. We discovered that our polite enemy had left the causeway unoccupied, and that his force held no position nearer than 8 miles from the town we were in. The Chinese pickets opened fire upon our troops, but were speedily driven back. The reconnaissance effected, our force returned to Pehtang unmolested.
Meanwhile the Admirals had set to work, landing troops, horses, guns, materiel, and stores. The navy worked famously; and as everything had to be brought into the river either in, or in tow of, the gunboats, whose movements depended upon the tides, the work, under the active superintendence of Captain Borlase, C.B., continued without regard to any arbitrary distinction between day and night. During four or five of the ten days spent in this tedious operation, the rain fell in torrents; and as the interior of Pehtang is below high water-mark, the streets were knee-deep in mud, composed, in addition to the usual impurities pertaining to that substance, of flour, wardrobes, Tartar-hats, field rakes, coal, shutters, oil-cake, chaff, china-cups, matting, beer-bottles, tin cans, and kittens, being chiefly the contents of the dwellings of the townspeople, which were successively turned out of windows to make room for our troops. The cavalry and artillery horses were picketed in the streets, where alone space was available; and how they and we and everybody escaped death from typhus fever or plague, Heaven only knows. The sanitary officer was outraged by the result. During this time, water for the use of the troops was obtained in boats filled by the navy in the river above the influence of the tide, and towed to Pehtang, where the contents were landed in barrels for distribution.
On the 12th August, after a delay of a day on account of the French, who at first were unwilling to advance till the season changed, we moved out to attack the enemy’s position; General Michel with the 1st Division and the French, along the causeway against the enemy’s front, General Napier, with the 2nd Division and cavalry, by a track which diverged from the causeway to the right at a short distance from Pehtang, with the view of turning the enemy’s left.
It will not be easy for those who were not present to realise the difficulties of this march, or to do justice to the troops who performed it. The gun-waggons sank literally axle-deep, and their hinder parts had to be left behind; the heavy cavalry were greatly distressed in struggling through the mud, and it occupied the troops six hours to traverse four miles, during which time the enemy remained in his position.
Napier’s division having reached moderately firm ground, advanced upon the open Tartar flank and rear; whilst the Allied left cannonaded his front, which was covered by a formidable intrenchment. The Tartar cavalry came out in great numbers to meet Napier, who opened on them with Armstrong guns. At first the Tartars seemed puzzled, but not disturbed; presently, seeing they were losing men, they rapidly extended, and in a few minutes the 2nd Division stood enveloped in a grand circle of horsemen, advancing from all points towards the centre. Napier’s infantry were speedily deployed, his cavalry let loose, and artillery kept going; and though the heavy ground was rendered more difficult for our cavalry by ditches broad and deep, whose passages were known to the enemy alone, yet, within a quarter of an hour of their advance, the Tartar force was everywhere in retreat. Not, however, till a body of their horsemen, which had charged Sterling’s battery, had been gallantly met and beaten by a party of Fane’s Horse, inferior in number, under Lieutenant Macgregor, who was severely wounded.
The Allied left then advanced along the causeway, and occupied the lines of the intrenchments about Senho, which the enemy deserted on the success of our right.
Amongst some papers found after the action, was a copy of a report from the Tartar General San-ko-lin-tzin to the Emperor, setting forth that the physical difficulties in the way of our landing at Pehtang, and of advancing thence across a country which never is dry, rendered it unnecessary to dispute our disembarkation on that river; and even if a landing should be effected, and our troops could be got under weigh, the general considered that nothing would be easier than to destroy us with his hordes of cavalry, so soon as we got entangled in the marshes.
At Senho the Allied forces rested their right on the Peiho river. The Taku Forts are about six miles lower down. Mid-way between Senho and the northernmost or nearest fort on the left bank, stands the town of Tungkoo, surrounded by a very long intrenchment, consisting of a formidable rampart and a parapet, covered in all its length by a double wet ditch.
General de Montauban proposed to attack this town the afternoon we reached Senho, but Sir Hope Grant would not consent to do so until he had acquired some knowledge of the position.
The French Commander-in-Chief thereon determined to take the place at once without the aid of our troops. The French troops were led along the causeway communicating between Senho and Tungkoo, which appeared to be the only means of approach; but so considerable a fire was developed from the ramparts as to deter our Allies from attempting a _coup-de-main_, and they returned to camp after cannonading the place for half an hour.
Means having been afterwards found of approaching Tungkoo with a large front on firm ground, the 1st British Division and the French captured the place on the 14th August. It was exclusively an affair of artillery; the enemy’s guns in position on the ramparts were silenced by our Armstrong and 9-pounder guns, and the rifled 24-pounder of the French, gradually advanced, covered by infantry, to successive positions, as the enemy’s fire became weaker. The Allies had forty-two guns in the field. We found about fifty guns of all sorts in the ramparts, which the enemy, abandoned as our infantry advanced under cover of the guns. The British headed by the 60th Rifles, turned the right of the ditch, and entered the works a quarter of an hour before the French, who made their entry at the gate.
After taking Tungkoo, the 1st Division (British) returned to its camp in front of Senho, and the 2nd Division, which had been in reserve, occupied the town.
The view from General Napier’s house-top was not encouraging. As far as the eye could reach, we were surrounded by salt marshes, intersected by very numerous and wide canals, which carry sea-water into the salt-pans.
It was in contemplation to attack the north and south forts simultaneously, with a force operating on each side of the Peiho, and a bridge of boats was in course of construction across the river at Senho. But as all the materials of the bridge, save boats, had to be conveyed overland from Pehtang, its progress could not be rapid. Meanwhile, by dint of most laborious reconnaissance, General Napier had discovered that open ground near the north fort could be reached by artillery, on the completion of a line of causeway which he had commenced over the inundated ground within the town of Tungkoo, and by establishing crossing-places at certain points on five or six canals. He urged an immediate attack on the north forts only; and, having obtained permission to throw out a picket towards them, on the 19th, made so good a use of it, that in one night the passages of the canals were completed, and the Commander-in-chief was conducted next morning within five hundred yards of the nearest fort. Seeing all obstacles to the approach of the forts overcome, Sir Hope Grant frankly consented to General Napier’s scheme, and intrusted its execution to his division. The French commander was very averse to the plan proposed. He formally protested against it, but General Grant maintained his determination; and, devoting the night of the 20th to the construction of batteries, the attack was made upon the upper north fort at daylight of the 21st August. The fire of thirty-one pieces of British and six of French ordnance gradually subdued the enemy’s artillery; their magazine was exploded by one of our shells; shortly before, that of the further north fort, which supported it, was blown up by a shell from one of the gunboats, which were rendering such assistance as they could give at a range of two thousand yards, the distance imposed by the stakes and booms which were laid across the river. On the advance of the infantry, the French crossed the ditches, upon scaling-ladders laid flat. Our engineers, who trusted to pontoons, were less successful, and the French had reared their ladders against the ramparts for a quarter of an hour, before our infantry, some by swimming and scrambling, others by following the French, had struggled across the ditches and reached the berme. But so active was the defence that no French soldier got into the place by the ladders, though several bravo men mounted them; an entrance was eventually made by both forces at the same time through embrasures, which were reached by steps hewn out of the earthen rampart with axes, bayonets, and swords.
When the attack was delivered General de Montauban was absent from the field, the French army being represented by General Collineau and his brigade.
It had been intended to breach the rampart near the gate, and so secure an entrance to the fort actually taken by assault; but our gallant Commander-in-Chief became impatient of the process, and the more speedy means of escalade was resorted to. It is highly probable that the rapidity of our success, and the tremendous loss inflicted on the garrison of the first fort, who had no time for escape in any large numbers, conduced to the surrender of the second fort and to the prompt abandonment of the position. Our loss amounted to two hundred and three British killed and wounded; the French loss was somewhat less. That of the Tartars was estimated at two thousand men, large numbers of whom became inmates of our hospitals.
The attack was gallant, so was the defence, and the success was perfect. The enemy immediately surrendered the further northern fort into our hands, with two thousand prisoners; and before the evening the entire position on the Peiho, covering an area of six square miles, and containing upwards of six hundred guns, was abandoned by its defenders.
The attack on the forts had only been deferred until provisions and munitions of war could be drawn from Pehtang, which we had quitted on the 12th August, in as light marching order as possible. Since our arrival at Senho, our tents, packs, kits, ammunition, and baggage, had gradually been brought through the mud to the front as speedily as the limited means of transport would permit, but in the process many of the beasts of burden perished. The state of the country would alone account for this; but further, as none of the commissariat waggons were at this time disembarked, it was necessary that everything should be carried upon the backs of transport animals, many of which having just landed from Manilla, Japan, and Bombay in sorry condition, were quite unfit for this service. At this juncture the Chinese Coolie Corps, composed of men recruited at Canton, became the only reliable means of transport. They were very hard worked, but they performed their duty very cheerfully and well.