The Indian War of Independence of 1857 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Best Seller
Amazon: B07JFLVR9S
Goodreads: 45165335
Publisher: Prabhat Prakashan
Published: 1909-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

2

Havelock

When the Sikh Sepoys delivered the Allahabad fort into the hands of the English, instead of into the hands of the Revolutionaries, the English made it a base of operations on their side. There was now no longer the danger of having to carry on all civil and military operations in the North of India from a distant centre like Calcutta. Lord Canning decided to shift the capital itself to Allahabad until the Revolution was suppressed and, accordingly, he came in a few days to reside at Allahabad. But in the meanwhile, came the news of the miserable plight of the English at Cawnpore and their piteous cries for help. General Neill, therefore, kept a small army for protection at Allahabad and sent the rest under Major Renaud to raise the siege of Cawnpore. This detachment marched on burning villages indiscriminately, on their way. Just then, Havelock was appointed to the command of the Cawnpore army in place of Neill. He arrived at Allahabad, towards the end of June. He was a trained and an experienced officer. Fortunately for the English, the war with Persia came to an end about the time when the Revolution actually broke out, and the whole English army, under good commanders like Havelock, arrived in India just at the time when they were very badly wanted. Though Neill was extremely chagrined to find that Havelock superseded him as the chief officer at Allahabad and that he had to be under him, he did not allow his private feelings to come in the way of the welfare of his country’s rule in India. He made vigorous efforts towards the equipment of the army. He gave every help to the army that was to be commanded by Havelock, made all arrangements as to the commissariat, and quietly handed over the charge of the troops to Havelock when the latter officer arrived. This army was now fully prepared to go to the assistance of the English at Cawnpore. Havelock was eager to start, when suddenly news came that Sir Hugh Wheeler was defeated and had surrendered and that all the Englishmen, including him, had been massacred on the banks of the Ganges!

Havelock determined to revenge their death and set out in haste from Allahabad towards Cawnpore. He had with him one thousand select English infantry, one hundred-and-fifty Sikhs, a picked detachment of English cavalry, and six guns, all desperate with rage. There were, also, several civil and military officers going along with them, officers whose life had been saved consciously and deliberately by the revolted Sepoys and the people, out of mercy, or who had escaped their vigilance, and who now came to give information about the geography of the country to the new officers and men, to fight along with them and to wreak a terrible vengeance. And these brave Englishmen, whom one word of a Sepoy would have despatched from this earth, who would have been dead by now but for their mercy, now came together and started the campaign of burning villages wholesale.

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