The Pioneers took as prominent a part in building the rest of the batteries as on the night of the 7th. The nights of the 8th, 9th and 10th were similarly occupied, and on the morning of the 11th all was ready. Many were the acts of individual gallantry during that period of feverish construction. The embrasures for the great guns were not unmasked till all was ready, but were filled up with sandbags to protect the working parties for the last moment. The engineers then proposed to blow out these bags and let the gun appear through. But a Sikh, a sapper or a Pioneer, had a braver, more daring way. Jumping on to the parapet he picked out the bags from one embrasure and threw them back, and the gunners watching, took the hint and did the same, often under a heavy fire from the defenders now alive enough to what was going forward.
The breaching bombardment other than that from No. 1 Battery was reserved till all was ready, and burst forth as a warning to the doomed city on the morning of the 11th. In ten minutes the Kashmir Bastion, just to the left of the gate as you look at it, was silenced, and the Water Bastion pounded into ruins. The work to do, however, was to pound the high walls into workable breaches, up which troops could scramble, the great ditch being filled up with the falling debris. The Moree Bastion, the Kashmir Bastion and the curtain to the left of it, and the Water Bastion were the points selected.
To every battery was an engineer officer, with his relief, and Ensigns Chalmers and Gustavinski, of the Pioneers, were appointed assistant-field-engineers for this purpose. The enemy was now fully alive to their danger, and while the city itself was emptying, and a good many men were deserting, the mass of the Mutineers seemed ready to face their fate.
General Wilson, the tired and delicate commander, who had but returned from a bed of smallpox the day before the Meerut outbreak, supported and stimulated by John Nicholson and the senior engineers, now decided on what was to some extent the gambler's throw of the storming. By the evening of the 13th, engineer officers had exposed themselves by creeping to the glacis and even to the edge of the ditch and reported the breaches practicable for the stormers. Lieut. Home it was who reported on that of the Water Bastion. More pounding would have been better, but the rebels were good at repairing, and it was decided to storm forthwith lest worst befall.
The story of the storming need be but outlined. The First Column, led by Brigadier-General Nicholson, 1,000 rifles strong, was to go up the breach near the Kashmir Bastion. Ensign Chalmers and a hundred of his Pioneers in addition.
The Second Column, under Brigadier Jones, 900 strong, to scale the breach in the Water Bastion, Lieut. Hovedon and Ensign Gustavinski as field engineers.
It is to be remembered that there were two temporary ranks in the army, that of "brigadier-general" and "brigadier", the former the senior. Brigadiers, as in our post-war days, commanded a homogeneous force of one of the arms, while brigadier-general applied to the commander of a force of all arms of that size or more.
The Third Column 950 rifles or muskets under Colonel Campbell (52nd Foot), was to assault by the Kashmir Gate and go forward towards the church, after the Kashmir Gate, approachable by a still extant timber bridge, had been blown in by a party of Sappers.
The demolition party for this famous purpose was commanded by Lieut. Home, of the Pioneers with Lieuts. Salkeld and Tandy, of the Sappers and Miners, three British N.C.O.'s of the Sappers and Miners, fourteen sappers and ten pioneers, the latter specially selected for this daring purpose by Home. Last but not least was Bugler Hawthorne, of the 52nd, to sound the advance.
The Fourth Column, under Major Reid of Hindu Rao's consisted of his own Sirmoor Battalion and the Guides, with odd details of Europeans and some Dogras of the Jammu Contingent which had lately joined the force. This column was to clear the suburbs about Kissengunj and to enter by the Moree Gate when Nicholson's Column, coming along the walls, had cleared it.
There was further a fifth or Reserve Column, while the mounted troops were to have perhaps the worst role, viz, to sit in their saddles under fire at the walls and cover the flank of the column at the Kashmir Gate and Bastion.
The first three columns were assembled behind Ludlow Castle close to the breaching batteries before dawn, but the staff co-ordination, which had always been a weak point, was at fault now. There were bad delays after the siege guns had ceased, and the enemy had hastily repaired the night's breaches with sandbags and was manning their posts in expectation. However, late or early, the die was cast, and the Delhi Force had before it victory or disaster, with certainly no odds on the former. The columns now moved to their positions in broad daylight, waiting for the signal, which was to be the bugles of the Rifles instead of the sound of the explosion as at first appeared.
The guns had again opened to clear away the repairs, and it was not till 6 a.m. that the bugles of the 60th rang out. The columns then rushed forth, scrambled up the breaches in the face of a galling fire, and in a very few minutes were on top. Lieut. Chalmers recorded that he and his Pioneers got safety over the breach, worked hard in the heat at making ramps and breastworks, clearing debris, loop holing walls, unthanked, till dusk. Chamberlain wrote to Lawrence, however, that their courage amounted in his opinion to utter recklessness of life.
The Second Column at the Water Bastion lost heavily, Greathed and Hovedon (of the Pioneers) were wounded and the thirty-nine men of the Mazhbi ladder party were all knocked over. The breach was none too easy, and the stormers crowded on the glacis lost heavily. Lieut. Hovedon, leading the ladder party, was highly commended in dispatches for his efforts.
The Blowing in the Kashmir Gate
The story of the Third Column lives in all Mutiny annals. It left its rendezvous late owing to the delays that overtook the other columns, in broad daylight, halting where the road turned off to the Kashmir Gate, and let the explosion party go ahead. Lieut. Home led the carrying party, who were to place the powder and tamping bags against the gates, and Salkeld, the firing party. As they came on to the bridge the wicket gate was open and through this a devastating fire was kept up by defenders too excited to even shut it. As Lieut. Home was, for the time being, the Commandant of the Pioneers, listen to the story as told in the V.C. and D.S.O. Book (Vol. 1, p. 45).
"As soon as the rear of No. 1 Column cleared the road leading to the Kashmir Gate the party of engineers who were told off to blow it in rushed up. This little band of heroes consisted of Lieuts. Salkeld and Home, Sergeants Smith and Carmichael and Corporal Burgess (all of the Bengal Engineers) with three Sikh sappers, Havildars Mahdu and Tillak Singh, and Sepoy Ramloll; Bugler Hawthorne was also attached to the party. They reached the gateway unhurt, and found that part of the drawbridge had been destroyed, but passing along the precarious footway supported by the remaining beams, they proceeded to lodge their powder bags against the gate. Sergeant Carmichael was killed whilst laying his bags, and Havildar Mahore at the same time severely wounded; Lieut. Home having seen the powder bags properly placed, jumped down into the ditch to allow the firing party to advance. While endeavouring to fix the charge Lieut. Salkeld was mortally wounded. He, however, notwithstanding his wound, handed the slow match to Corporal Burgess, who was shot dead just as he had accomplished the duty. Sepoy Ramloll was also killed and Havildar Tilak Singh severely wounded. The explosion was completely successful but Sergeant Smith was severely injured by the falling debris. Bugler Hawthorne then sounded the advance, which was the signal for the Third Column to come up and enter the city at the Kashmir Gate. The fire that the engineers were exposed to came from the city wall that runs at right angles to the Kashmir Gate*.
Alas! Lieut. Salkeld died of his wounds, and Home was killed from the premature firing of a mine after the capture of the fort of Malagarh+. The deeds of the gallant party have been commemorated for all time by a tablet on the shot-riddled Kashmir Gate of Delhi to the following effect:
"On the 14th of September, 1857, the British Force stormed Delhi. It was after sunrise on that day that the party, advancing from Ludlow Castle in the face of heavy fire, and crossing this bridge which had been totally destroyed, lodged powder bags against and blew in the right leaf of these gates, thus opening the way for the assaulting columns. This memorial is placed here as a tribute of respect to those gallant soldiers by General Lord Napier of Magdala, Colonel R.E. and C. in C. in India, 1876".
The following Native Officers and Sepoys of the Sappers were reported by Lieut. Home to have shown the most determined bravery and coolness throughout the whole operation:- Havildar Mahdoo who accompanied the advance of the powder party and Subedar Toola, Jemedar Bis Ram, Havildars Tillak Singh and Ramaroy and Sepoy Sahib Singh who were with the firing party.
The Governor General's comment published in G.G.O. was that "Where so much has been done to merit admiration, it is difficult to select acts for particular notice . but that no injustice will be done if he offer a tribute of admiration and thanks to the brave soldiers who under Lieuts. Salkeld and Home accomplished the desperate task of blowing in the Kashmir Gate. It will be the care of the Governor-General that the brave men, both European and Native, who survived to share the glory of it shall not go unrewarded, and that the memory of those who fell shall be honoured."
With the blowing in of the gate and the sound of Bugler Hawthorne's 'advance' at last reaching them, the 52nd rushed through the gate; in the din and excitement the call had to be repeated more than once before it was heard by Brigadier Campbell, in time to bayonet a few of the enemy who had not been stricken by the explosion or had not fled. The column forming inside now joined with that from the Water Bastion and proceeded to advance towards St. James' Church and up into the city.
*The rewards were gazetted in the London Gazette of the 18th June, 1858, which reads as follows: For conspicuous bravery in the performance of the desperate duty of blowing up the Kashmir Gate in broad daylight under a heavy fire of musketry preparatory to the assault." +The following account of the Malagarh tragedy from the V.C. & D.S.O. Book, Vol. I, under Lieut. Home, V.C.: "All had been got ready and the slow match was lighted, but as no explosion followed in the ordinary time, Lieut. Home went forward to light the match, which had, as he thought, gone out. Thus this gallant soldier met his death, after having previously come safely through such terrible danger," i.e. of the Kashmir Gate.
|
