Mutiny and Insurgency in India 1857-58 by Tony Heathcote

Author:Tony Heathcote
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781594629
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-01-02T16:00:00+00:00

Nicholson added that Wilson was becoming jealous of him, and had refused to show him the plan of assault. Baird Smith, the chief engineer, shared Nicholson’s view of their commander, and later wrote: ‘I have such contempt for Wilson’s military capacity and found him throughout the siege operations so uniformly obstructive... that I say as little about him as I can.’ When Wilson told him: “I have already more than I can manage, and my head gets into such a state that I feel nearly mad sometimes. For God’s sake don’t drive me so,’ Baird Smith passed on the note to Nicholson. ‘I am satisfied that Wilson has gone off his head,’ he said, and Nicholson reported the same to Lawrence. ‘Wilson’s head is going, he says so himself, and it is quite evident he speaks the truth.’ Wilson himself, in default of the support he was entitled to expect from two of his senior officers, stopped speaking to either of them.

Despite these dissensions, once Wilson had decided on the assault, all the scientific and mathematical skills honed over two centuries of Western siege-craft was brought to bear against Delhi. Baird Smith, wounded and confined to his quarters with dysentery or its treatment (brandy and opium), had to leave the task of selecting a site for the batteries to his deputy, Captain Alexander Taylor. Ground was broken for the first battery on the night of 7 September and by dawn it was ready to receive its armament, four 24-pdrs, five 18-pdrs and a siege mortar. On 12 September all four batteries began a twenty-four hours’ continuous bombardment, with horse gunners and volunteers from the British cavalry brought in to assist the foot artillery in the exhausting work of passing ammunition to the guns and manhandling them back to their firing positions after recoil. On 13 September, the engineers (Arthur Lang among them) reported that the breaches both at the Kashmir and Water Gates were, in the technical language of the time ‘practicable’. The defenders, however, constructed retrenchments behind the breaches. When their heavy guns could no longer fire from the shattered bastions, they brought them outside and duelled with the siege batteries in the open. In the week following the opening of the bombardment, the British suffered over 300 casualties from enemy fire.

The assault was launched on 14 September with five separate columns, each of between 850 to 1,000 strong, and composed both of European and Indians, the latter making up two-thirds of the whole. Ahead of them the 60th Rifles were deployed as sharpshooters to suppress enemy fire as soon as the siege guns stopped. Before the British troops marched out, Father Bertrand prayed for their victory and their souls, and told them that even the Protestants would take no harm from the blessings of an old man and a clergyman. The first and second columns reached the breaches, though with heavy casualties among the leading files carrying the scaling ladders. While they climbed the rubble under deadly musketry

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.