Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/85

 nearly four thousand men. Brigadier-general Smith, commanding at Sipri, advanced towards Paori, but, finding himself too weak to capture the place, applied to Napier for reinforcements. Napier started at once with a force of six hundred men and artillery, and by forced marches reached Smith on 19 Aug. Operations against Paori commenced on the following day, when, having singled out the only possible point of attack, Napier opened fire with his 18-pounders and mortars, and maintained the bombardment continuously for thirty hours. When he was about to storm he found the enemy had evacuated the place in the night. A column was despatched in pursuit, and, having demolished the fortifications of Paori, Napier returned to Gwalior.

On 12 Dec. Napier took the field against Ferozeshah, a prince of the house of Delhi, who, having been driven out of Rohilkund and Oudh on the restoration of order, crossed the Ganges and Jamna, cut the telegraph wires, and joined Tantia Topi. Napier had thrown out three small columns to intersect the anticipated route of the enemy, and held a fourth ready to act under his own command. He was at this time very ill and hardly able to sit a horse; but on learning that the rebels would pass through the jungles of the Sind river south-west of Gwalior, he set off through the jungle to cut them off. At Bitowar, on the 14th, he learnt that Ferozeshah was nearly nine miles ahead. Continuing his pursuit through Narwár he there dropped his artillery, and, mounting his highlanders on baggage animals, pressed forward with his cavalry and mounted infantry through the jungle and struck the enemy at Ranode. So unexpected was the onslaught, and so extended was the front of Ferozeshah's army, that Napier completely routed it. The rebels lost 450 men killed, while only sixteen British were wounded.

At the end of January 1859 Tantia Topi, beaten in the north-west, fled southward to the Parone jungles, a belt of hill and jungle little known, flanked at each end by a hill fort, with plenty of guns and a garrison the reverse of friendly. This tract Napier determined to control. He caused the forts of Parone to be destroyed and clearings to be cut through the jungle past the most notorious haunts of the rebels. The policy proved successful; and on 4 April Napier reported to Campbell, ‘Man Singh has surrendered just as his last retreats were laid open by the road. … Since the days of General Wade the efficacy of roads so applied has not diminished.’ Shortly after Tantia Topi was also caught. The two rebel leaders were tried and executed. The mutiny was stamped out. For his services in Central India and the mutiny Napier received the medal and three clasps. He also received the thanks of parliament and of the Indian government, and he was made a K.C.B.

In January 1860 Napier was appointed to the command of the second division in the expedition to China. He went to Calcutta and superintended the equipment and embarkation of the Indian troops; and it was due to the great care he bestowed upon the sanitary arrangements and ventilation of the transports that the men arrived at their destination in good condition. Hong Kong was reached in the middle of April, and here Sir Hope Grant [q. v.] assembled his force and arranged his plans. On 11 June Napier started for Tahlien Bay, which had been selected as the rendezvous. On 26 July the expedition sailed for the Pehtang-ho. The first division disembarked between 1 and 3 Aug. on the right bank, and seized on the town of Pehtang. Napier's division landed between the 5th and 7th, and was ordered to attack the village of Sin-ho, strongly occupied by the enemy. They had to cross with great labour a mud flat, making a road with fascines and brushwood; but the Tartars, finding themselves taken in flank, were speedily driven out. The French were now desirous to attack the south forts of the Peiho, while Grant, who was cordially supported by Napier, preferred to attack the north forts. Eventually the French general Montauban yielded; and on 21 Aug. Napier's division, with Collinot's French brigade, attacked and took the first upper fort. The second north fort was taken without opposition, and then the whole of the Peiho forts, north and south, were abandoned, with upwards of six hundred guns. Napier had his field-glass shot out of his hand, his sword-hilt broken by a shell fragment, three bullet-holes in his coat, and one in his boot, but he escaped unhurt.

The forts were dismantled by Napier, who had been left behind for the purpose, while the remainder of the forces of the allies advanced. His work accomplished, Napier reached Tientsin on 5 Sept., and remained there while the expedition pushed on towards Pekin. On Napier devolved the duty of seeing to communications and pushing on supplies to the front. After the battle of Chang-kia-wan Grant summoned Napier to the front. He reached headquarters on the 24th, having marched seventy miles in sixty hours, and brought a supply of ammunition, which was much required. Although not in time for the battle of Pa-le-cheaon, he was