Guns to the Far East (20 page)

William Peel paid a courtesy call on the garrison Commander, while commissariat stores were loaded aboard the
Koel,
but he did not linger. With their destination now so close, he was impatient to reach it. Waiting only to receive the heartening news that Delhi had been re-captured and Outram and Havelock had succeeded in fighting their way into the Residency at Lucknow, he ordered his small fleet to cast off. The men, cheered by the news he had brought back with him, turned-to with a will to assist in coaling when they anchored off the town of Mirzapore the following evening, and there were few grumbles when they were called on during the night to pump out the
Koel,
which had shipped a quantity of water after dragging her anchor.

At 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, 3rd October, the advance party of the
Shannon
Brigade reached its destination in the
Koel,
anchoring off the Musjid Hospital at Allahabad. By five that evening, all shot and baggage had been landed with the assistance of coolies, and the detachment marched into a tented camp which was situated outside the massive Fort. The
Koel
was dispatched to pick up the invalids from Ghazipore and the ancient
Mirzapore
steamer towed the flat into the anchorage. Stores were landed and, with a detachment taking over garrison duties inside the fort, a start was made with the difficult task of getting the heavy guns ashore, of which Phillip was in overall charge. By the evening of 17th October, it was virtually completed, the party left at Ghazipore had rejoined and the second detachment of 120, under the First Lieutenant, James Vaughan—which had left Calcutta a month later than Captain Peel's—was reported to have reached Benares.

Phillip, who had been sleeping aboard the flat, marched his fatigue party up to the Fort and, almost for the first time since his arrival, was able to take stock of his surroundings. The Fort itself, situated in a fork made by the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna Rivers, was, he knew, over two hundred years old. On the two river faces, its towering, loopholed walls and massive bastions of red sandstone presented the appearance of an impregnable stronghold of great antiquity, but the land face had been considerably modernised and the Main Gate, by which he and his party entered, was approached through a series of newly built brick prison cells and along a metalled roadway wide enough to admit a cavalry squadron riding eight or ten abreast. The barracks had accommodation for only six hundred men but about five hundred yards from the glacis, a permanent camp had been pitched, with messing marquees and huts, for the accommodation of troops passing through on their way up country, and the arsenal, occupying a series of flat-roofed storerooms within the Fort, was one of the largest in India.

The native city—as in Benares, composed largely of mudbuilt houses, temples, and open bazaars—nestled below the landward walls of the Fort, and the cantonments, previously containing the bungalows of civil and military families, lay two miles to the east. Few of the cantonment residences were now habitable; Colonel Neill's arrival had been too late to prevent the arsonists and looters indulging in a savage orgy of destruction, and the burnt-out buildings, in their abandoned gardens, still offered evidence of the violence which had characterised Allahabad's brief but bloody rebellion.

Captain Peel, when Phillip entered his office to report to him, was engaged in writing a letter to the Chief of Staff in Calcutta concerning the danger of fire to which the arsenal was exposed. He said testily, thrusting the letter to one side when he recognised his caller, “Imagine it, Phillip—those storerooms contain most of the powder required for the approaching campaign and whole families of civilians, whose homes were presumably destroyed, have been permitted to take up residence in adjacent rooms! Many were actually camping in the storerooms until I threw them out and all the refugees housed in the Fort were nightly taking the air on the roofs, the men smoking their pipes!” He sighed in exasperation. “Now I've got sentries posted to check their identity at least, and I've told General Mansfield that I propose to remove the powder to detached buildings in cantonments or to powder boats on the river, where it will be considerably safer. And I've ordered the removal of the stocks of firewood the refugee families had painstakingly collected … If I can get
them
rehoused I shall feel much happier. Well …” His tone softened. “What have you to report? That our guns are safely unloaded?”

Phillip nodded. He made his report and then asked, “Is it true that you've been requested to send up a gunnery officer to Cawnpore, sir?”

Peel eyed him with raised brows. “News gets around, does it not?” he countered dryly. “It's true, I have received that request and I'm sending Edward Daniels. He's only a mid, I'm aware, but he had plenty of land gunnery practice in the Crimea—he'll do all they require and more. Why … had
you
any thought of volunteering?”

Phillip reddened. “Yes,” he admitted. “I had thought of it.”

“Damn it, I can't spare you, man!” Peel exploded. “I can't spare any of my lieutenants and, least of all, my senior training officer. The guns' crews have to learn how to handle bullock and elephant teams and all the officers, as well as some of the ratings, will have to become reasonably proficient at horseback riding. And we shan't have long to ensure that they are.”

“You mean—” Phillip stared at him, his initial disappointment fading as comprehension dawned. “The Brigade will be going into action?”

William Peel smiled. He picked up a sheet of paper from among the pile on his desk. “Read this, my dear fellow—it's just come by telegraph from General Mansfield, Sir Colin Campbell's Chief of Staff.”

The telegraphic message was addressed to Colonel Campbell, the commandant of the Fort and Phillip's pulse quickened as he read:
“The Inspector-General of Ordnance has ordered the equipment and forwarding of heavy guns to Cawnpore. See to this yourself and press forward the work. Beg Captain Peel to detach as many of the Naval Brigade as will be necessary to work this train under some efficient naval officers. One heavy battery with its ammunition, 200 rounds a gun, is to be completed first and sent off. Although there are no proper waggons for the transport of heavy ammunition at Allahabad, do what you can with ordinary carts of the country and press them forward. If no suitable carriage for naval sixty-eights, leave these in Fort and replace with Artillery twenty-fours. Beg Peel to employ his men in the arsenal to help in packing ammunition.”

“There is no suitable carriage for our sixty-eights,” Peel said, when Phillip returned the message. “But the twenty-fourpounders are available. Even so, our most pressing problem will be transport. Help me solve that, Phillip, and get your Jacks to work on the gun teams. Elephants are the devil to control, they tell me, and bullocks can be awkward. As for the country carts …” He sighed. “At most we've got a couple of weeks and it may be only a few days, but we've
got
to be ready.”

“Of course, sir. I'll do my best, I—”

“I know you will,” Peel put in quickly. “And I know the anxiety you're enduring. The latest news from Lucknow is that, although Outram and Havelock fought their way into the Residency, the relief force suffered so many casualties—over five hundred, I understand—that they're trapped there with the original garrison. They cannot fight their way out and Outram has said that he cannot risk an attempt to evacuate the women and children and the wounded with the force he now commands. But they are holding their own and have enlarged the Residency defensive perimeter. Their greatest anxiety is that their food is running low—dangerously low— so that they have had again to reduce their rations.”

“Then there's need for haste?” Phillip suggested, frowning.

“Yes,” Peel conceded. “The Commander-in-Chief is still in Calcutta but he's coming up to take command of the second relief force in person and should be here before the end of the month. We shall move on to Cawnpore to await his arrival as soon as our transport is arranged. The relief column will gather there and contact is to be made with the men Outram left to hold the Alam Bagh, who will be reinforced.”

Phillip nodded. They discussed various details concerning guns and equipment and then William Peel said, “Jim Vaughan's party should be here by mid-day tomorrow, according to a signal from Allahabad. I propose to send him on to Cawnpore with four of the twenty-four-pounder guns and a hundred men, including Nowell Salmon's rifle company, as soon as I can—probably in a couple of days, if we can lay our hands on the necessary carriage. They've opened the railway as far as Lahonda but, as most of the engines were destroyed by the rebels, it's doubtful whether it will be of much help to us.” He glanced at Phillip with a thoughtful frown. “Three of the mids can go in the first party … I feel that Kerr, Clinton, and Martin Daniel deserve the privilege, in recognition of the way all three of them have worked at their training, don't you? And a field-piece party—Clinton's, if you're agreeable.”

Phillip nodded. Midshipman Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton, despite his rather effeminate good looks and diminutive stature, had sweated long and hard at his training for land warfare, and had drilled his six-pounder's guns' crew to a pitch of efficiency few of the other teams had reached.

“Right,” Peel said, making a note on his desk pad. “The other twenty-four-pounders and two of the howitzers will go next, with Edward Hay's company and Gray's Marines as escort, and we'll follow with the rest of the field-guns and rockets—probably catch up with them on the way, with any luck, especially if the railway
is
functioning. Our total strength will be 516 officers and men when Vaughan joins although, of course, our effective strength will depend on the number of sick he has. We've got 57, but most of them are on the mend. We shall have to leave them, with about another two hundred, to garrison this place, until the Army can relieve them. Tom Young will command the second Cawnpore party—it's his due, as gunnery officer. And Phillip, I—”

“Sir?” Phillip acknowledged, his voice carefully expressionless.

“I can't give you a command officially, since you are here in a supernumerary capacity. You—”

“I understand, sir,” Phillip assured him.

“No, old son, you don't.” Peel laid a hand on his arm. “I want you to act as my second-in-command in the field because—supernumerary or not—you're the best man for the job. If I'm killed or disabled, you will assume command of the Brigade, unless and until some higher
naval
authority countermands my instructions—the military authorities aren't likely to. Is that understood?”

“It is, sir. And … thank you.”

“It's your due, so don't thank me.” Peel's firm mouth curved into a smile. “By the way, two other items of news you may not have heard. Sotheby and his
Pearl
Brigade are to garrison Buxar and should be at or near there now. And our mutual friend Henry Keppel is a Rear-Admiral and a K.C.B.. How's
that
for news?”

“I am simply delighted to hear it,” Phillip answered, sincerely pleased. “And particularly delighted about his K.C.B.. Heaven knows, he deserved it!”

“But I imagine Her Majesty had to intervene in order to get it for him,” Peel observed dryly. “Over the First Lord's dead body, no doubt.” He arranged his papers in order, stifled a yawn, and rose. “Come and dine with me, Phillip. It'll give us a chance to get our transport requisitions sorted out.”

Lieutenant James Vaughan's party of four officers and one hundred and twenty seamen—many of the latter volunteers, enlisted from merchant ships in Calcutta—arrived next day in the steamer
Benares
with a flat in tow, laden with tents and baggage, having accomplished the difficult journey up river in a month and suffered only a single case of cholera during the voyage. They were met and played into camp by the
Shannon
's band, passing across the lowered drawbridge into the Fort between the ranks of a seamen's guard to receive a rousing welcome from the first detachment.

Three days later, Vaughan left on the one-hundred-and-twenty-mile journey along the Grand Trunk Road to Cawnpore in command of a party of one hundred seamen, his four heavy siege guns—each weighing 65 hundredweight—on Bengal Artillery carriages, drawn either by eleven yoke of oxen or two elephants. The gun ammunition was carried in bullock carts, the rocket-tubes mounted on horse-drawn hackeries and the rear of the lengthy procession was made up of baggage carts, with elephants and strings of camels laden with stores and camp equipment. Despite Phillip's misgivings and their hastily completed training, the bluejackets handled their strange transport animals reasonably well, aided by native drivers, camelteers, and
mahouts,
and an interpreter—Captain Maxwell, of the Bengal Artillery—now attached to the Naval Brigade.

On 27th October, Lieutenant Thomas Young's party of 176 seamen and the Royal Marine detachment under Captain Gray received orders to follow, taking with them the remaining four siege-guns, howitzers, field-pieces and rockets, and the Brigade's reserve ammunition. Because of the importance of this convoy, an escort of detachments from the 53rd and 64th Regiments was furnished by the Army and a company of Royal Engineers, seventy strong, attached to it. Phillip left the following evening, with Captain Peel and his two young aides-de-camp, Naval Cadets Lascelles and Watson, the defence of Allahabad Fort being entrusted to two hundred and forty seamen—recovered invalids and the band included in their number—under the command of Lieutenants Wilson, Wratislaw, and Axel Lind.

It was a not unpleasant ride along the ten-foot-wide Trunk Road, but everywhere evidence of rebellion could be seen in gutted
dak
bungalows, burnt-out villages, and the grisly skeletons of long-dead mutineers still hanging from trees at the road verge.