Twelve Years Of A Soldier's Life In India Part 19

"SIRHIND DIVISION, HEAD-QUARTERS, UMBaLA, _Jan. 30th, 1857_.

"Sir,--My mere counter-signature to Colonel Welchman's letter in favor of Lieutenant Hodson seems so much less than the occasion demands, that I trust his Excellency will allow of my submitting it in a more special and marked manner. I beg to accompany Colonel Welchman's letter with a testimony of my own to the high character of the officer in question.

"Rejoining his regiment as a lieutenant, from the exercise of an important command calling daily for the display of his energy, activity, and self-reliance, and frequently for the manifestation of the highest qualities of the partisan leader, or of the regular soldier, Lieutenant Hodson, with patience, perseverance, and zeal, undertook and carried out the laborious minor duties of the regimental staff as well as those of a company; and, with a diligence, method, and accuracy such as the best trained regimental officers have never surpa.s.sed, succeeded, in a manner fully justifying the high commendation bestowed on him by his commanding officer.

As a soldier in the field, Lieutenant Hodson has gained the applause of officers of the highest reputation, eye-witnesses of his ability and courage. On the testimony of others, I refer to these, and that testimony so honorable to his name I beg herewith to submit to his Excellency.

"On my own observation, I am enabled to speak to Lieutenant Hodson's character and qualities in quarters, and I do so in terms of well-earned commendation, and at the same time in the earnest hope that his merits and qualifications will obtain for him such favor and preferment at the hands of his Excellency as he may deem fit to bestow on this deserving officer.

"I have, &c.

(Signed) "M. C. JOHNSTONE, "_Brigadier-General, &c._"

I must add a few more extracts from Lieutenant Hodson's letters to myself and others, to complete this part of his history:--

DUGSHAI, _April 7th, 1857_.

Your letter written this day three months reached me at Umbala, at our mildest of "Chobhams" in the middle of February, and deserved an earlier reply, but I have been taken quite out of the private correspondence line lately, by incessant calls on my time. Regimental work in camp in India, with European regiments, no less than in quarters, is contrived to cut up one's time into infinitesimal quant.i.ties, and keep one waiting for every other half hour through the day. I had more time for writing when I commanded a frontier regiment, and governed a province!

These winter camps are very profitable, however, and not by any means unpleasant; and as Umbala was very full, we had an unusual amount of society for India, and some very pleasant meetings. I was too lame to dance, but not to dine, and take part in charades or tableaux, and so forth, and so contrived to keep alive after the day's work was over. I got some [Greek: kudos] and vast kindness for performing the more strictly professional role of brigade-major to one of the infantry brigades, and had excellent opportunities of learning the essential, but so seldom taught or learned art, of manoeuvring bodies of troops. My service has been so much on the frontier and with detached corps, that I had previously had but small opportunities for the study. I had an interview with General Anson the other day, and I hope a satisfactory one. He is a very pleasant mannered and gentlemanly man, open and frank in speech, and quick to a proverb in apprehension, taking in the pith of a matter at a glance. As I always thought, it turned out that Major Taylor's report had never reached the Commander-in-Chief, and they had only the old one-sided story to go upon. I explained the whole to him, and as he had already very kindly read the papers relating to the matter, he quite comprehended it, and begged me to give him a copy of Taylor's report, when he would, if satisfied, try and see justice done me. I trust, therefore, that at last something will be done to clear me from all stigma in the matter. As soon as that is done he will give me some appointment or other, unless Government do it themselves. Sir Henry Lawrence writes to me most kindly, and is only waiting a favorable opportunity to help me.

We are in a state of some anxiety, owing to the spread of a very serious spirit of disaffection among the Sepoy army.

One regiment (the 19th of the line) has already been disbanded, and, if all have their dues, more yet will be so before long. It is our great danger in India, and Lord Hardinge's prophecy, that our biggest fight in India would be with our own army, seems not unlikely to be realized, and that before long. Native papers, education, and progress are against keeping 200,000 native mercenaries in hand.

_To a Friend in Calcutta._

DUGSHAI, _May 5th, 1857_.

Unless I hear of something to my advantage meanwhile, I propose starting for Calcutta about the middle of this merry month of May, with the object of endeavoring to effect, by personal appeal and explanations, the self-vindication which no mere paper warfare seems likely to extort from Government. I had waited patiently for nearly two years, "striving to be quiet and do my own business," in the hope that justice, however tardy, would certainly overtake me, when an incident occurred which showed that I must adopt a more active mode of procedure if I wished for success. On applying for employment with the force in Persia, I met with a refusal, on the ground of what had occurred when in command of the Guides. This, you will allow, was calculated to drive a man to extremities who had been under the impression all along that his conduct, whensoever and howsoever called in question, had been amply vindicated.

It appeared that while everything to my disadvantage had been carefully communicated by the Punjaub authorities to army head-quarters, they had, with true liberality and generosity, suppressed "in toto" the results of the subsequent inquiry which had, in the opinion of all good men, amply cleared my good name from the dirt lavished on it. Even the Secretaries to Government had never heard of this vindication, and were going on believing all manner of things to my discredit; Lord Canning, also, being utterly ignorant of the fact that, subsequently to Lord Dalhousie's departure, the results of the second investigation had been communicated to Government.

There were clearly three courses open to me, "a la Sir Robert Peel."

1st. Suicide.

2d. To resign the service in disgust, and join the enemy.

3d. To make the Governor-General eat his words, and apologize.

I chose the last.

The first was too melodramatic and foreign; the second would have been a triumph to my foes in the Punjaub; besides, the enemy might have been beaten!

I have determined therefore, on a trip to Calcutta.

You will, I have no doubt, agree with me that I am perfectly right in taking the field against the enemy, and not allowing the Government to rest until I have carried my point.

In another letter of the same date:--

I have had another interview with General Anson at Simla, and nothing could have been more satisfactory. He was most polite, even cordial, and while he approved of my suggestion of going down to Calcutta to have personal explanations with the people there, and evidently thought it a plucky idea to undertake a journey of 2,500 miles in such weather (May and June), yet he said that I had better wait till I heard again from him, for he would write himself to Lord Canning, and try to get justice done me.

I do trust the light is breaking through the darkness, and that before long I may have good news to send you, in which I am sure you will rejoice.

It did break from a most unexpected quarter.

This was the last letter received in England from my brother for some months. Six days after it was written, the outbreak at Meerut occurred, and almost immediately India was in a blaze.

"Fortunate was it," my brother afterwards said, "that I was delayed by General Anson till he received an answer from Lord Canning, or I should undoubtedly have been murdered at some station on the road. The answer never came. It must have been between Calcutta and Allygurh when disturbances broke out, and was, with all the daks for many days, destroyed or plundered."

Most fortunate, too, was it, (if we may use such an expression,) that in the hour of India's extremity, Lieutenant Hodson was within reach of the Commander-in-Chief, and available for service. It was no longer a time to stand on official etiquette. In that crisis, which tried the bravest to the utmost, when a strong will and cool head and brave heart were needed, he at once rose again to his proper place in counsel and in action.

But I must not antic.i.p.ate what belongs to the next chapter. One fact, however, I cannot refrain from stating here, as an appropriate conclusion of this narrative, that within six weeks of the date of the last letter, Lieutenant Hodson was actually commanding in the field, before the walls of Delhi, by General Barnard's special request, the very corps of Guides from which he had been so unjustly ousted two years before.

"Was there ever," he says in reference to it, "a stranger turn on the wheel of fortune? I have much cause to be grateful, and I hope I shall not forget the bitter lessons of adversity."

FOOTNOTES:

[16] The news of his father's death.

[17] "Lieutenant Hodson, who has succeeded to the command of the Guides, is an accomplished soldier, cool in council, daring in action, with great natural ability improved by education. There are few abler men in any service."

PART II.

NARRATIVE OF THE DELHI CAMPAIGN, 1857.

CHAPTER I.

MARCH DOWN TO DELHI.

On the 10th May occurred the outbreak at Meerut, closely followed by the ma.s.sacre at Delhi.

On the 13th, orders were received at Dugshai, from the Commander-in-Chief, for the 1st Bengal European Fusileers to march without delay to Umbala, where all the regiments from the hill stations were to concentrate. They set out that afternoon, and reached Umbala, a distance of sixty miles, on the morning of the second day.

From this point Lieutenant Hodson's narrative commences. It is compiled from the letters or bulletins which he sent day by day to his wife, written as best they might, in any moments which he could s.n.a.t.c.h from the overwhelming press of work, sometimes on the field, sometimes on horseback. It is almost unnecessary to observe, that they were not intended for the public eye, and would never have been published had my lamented brother been alive, as he had the greatest horror of any of his letters appearing in print. Now, unhappily, the case is different, and I feel, in common with many of his friends, that in justice both to himself and to the gallant band who formed the "army before Delhi," this record of heroic fort.i.tude and endurance ought not to be withheld. It does not profess to be a history of the siege, or military operations connected with it; though it is a most valuable contribution to any history, as Lieutenant Hodson, from his position as head of the Intelligence Department, knew better, probably, than any other man what was going on both amongst the enemy and in our own force; and his incidental notices will tell, better, perhaps, than the most labored description, what our men did and what they suffered.

Full justice will probably never be done them, nor their trying position appreciated as it ought to be; besiegers in name, though more truly besieged; exposed to incessant attacks night and day; continually thinned in numbers by the sword, the bullet, the sunstroke, and cholera, and for many weeks receiving no reinforcements; feeling sometimes as if they were forgotten by their countrymen, and yet holding their ground against a nation in arms, without murmuring or complaining, and with unshaken determination. All accounts agree in speaking of the cheerful and "plucky" spirit that prevailed, both amongst officers and men, notwithstanding fatigue, privation, and sickness, as something quite remarkable even amongst British soldiers. And if there was one more than another who contributed to inspire and keep up this spirit, if there was one more than another who merited that which a Roman would have considered the highest praise, that he never despaired of his country, it was Lieutenant Hodson. I have seen a letter from a distinguished officer, in which he says:--

"Affairs at times looked very queer, from the frightful expenditure of life. Hodson's face was then like suns.h.i.+ne breaking through the dark clouds of despondency and gloom that would settle down occasionally on all but a few brave hearts, England's worthiest sons, who were determined to conquer."

If any should be disposed to think that my brother, in these letters, speaks too exclusively of his own doings, they must remember, in the first place, to whom they were addressed; and secondly, that in describing events--_quorum pars magna fuit_--it would be almost impossible not to speak of himself.

He himself, even in writing to his wife, thinks it necessary to apologize for being "egotistical." I believe, on the other hand, that the highest interest of the following narrative will be found to consist in its being a _personal_ narrative, a history of the man, an unreserved outspeaking of his mind and feelings; nor am I afraid of others thinking apology called for. Nor, however much they may disagree from his criticisms on men and measures, will they deny that he was well qualified, both by his opportunities of observation at the time, and his past experience of Asiatic character, to form a judgment and express an opinion without exposing himself to the charge of presumption.