Page:Clyde and Strathnairn.djvu/54

 CHAPTER IV

The Northern Operations to the Relief of Lucknow

'When will you be ready to start?' said Lord Panmure to Sir Colin Campbell, as he offered him the chief command in India in succession to General Anson. 'To-morrow,' replied the war-worn veteran; and on the morrow accordingly (July 12th, 1857), he left London, saying that he would get his outfit in Calcutta. Thus started the new Commander-in-Chief at the age of sixty-five, with all the readiness and ardour of a young soldier.

Colin Macliver, better known as Colin Campbell, was born at Glasgow on the 20th of October, 1792. Entering the army in 1808 as Colin Campbell, which name he took from his mother's family, he served with distinction in the Peninsular War and with the Walcheren expedition. He led a forlorn hope at the storming of San Sebastian, and was greatly distinguished in his earlier, as in his later career, for personal gallantry. 'I hereby certify,' says an official memorandum signed by Lord Lynedoch, 'that Captain Colin Campbell, then Lieutenant of the 9th Foot, under my command, behaved with the utmost gallantry and