Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/25

Nicholson assault; but he was wounded, and his men fell back. The garrison were, however, sufficiently scared to evacuate the place during the night.

When the second Sikh war commenced Nicholson's services were invaluable. He provided boats for Sir Joseph Thackwell to cross the Chenab and supplies for his troops, and kept him informed of the movements of the enemy. At Chilianwalah he was with Lord Gough [see Gough, Hugh (DNB00), first ], to whom he rendered services which were cordially acknowledged in the despatch of the commander-in-chief. Again, at the crowning victory of Gujrat, he earned the thanks of his chief. With a party of irregulars on 23 Feb. 1849 he secured nine guns of the enemy. He accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert [q. v.] in his pursuit of the Sikhs, and day by day kept Lawrence informed of the movements of the force. For his services he was promoted brevet-major on 7 June 1849. On the annexation of the Punjab, Nicholson was appointed a deputy-commissioner under the Lahore board, of which Sir Henry Lawrence was president. In December 1849 he obtained furlough to Europe, and left Bombay in January 1850, visiting Constantinople and Vienna, and arriving in England at the end of April. During his furlough he visited the chief cities of continental Europe, and studied the military systems of the different powers. He returned to India at the end of 1851, and for the next five years worked as an administrative officer at Bannú, being promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel on 28 Nov. 1854. The character of his frontier administration was very remarkable. He reduced the most ignorant and bloodthirsty people in the Punjab to such a state of order and respect for law that in the last year of his charge there was no crime of murder or highway robbery committed or even attempted. Lord Dalhousie [see Ramsay, James Andrew Broun (DNB00), 1812–1860] spoke of him at this time as ‘a tower of strength.’ Sir Herbert Benjamin Edwardes [q. v.] thought him as fit to be commissioner of a civil division as general of an army. He personally impressed himself upon the natives to such an extent that he was made a demigod. A brotherhood of fakirs in Hazara abandoned all forms of Asiatic monachism, and commenced the worship of ‘Nikkul Seyn.’ The sect had originated in 1848, when Nicholson was scouring the country between Attak and the Jhelam, making almost incredible marches, and performing prodigies of valour with a mere handful of followers. On meeting Nicholson the members of the sect would fall at his feet as their spiritual guide (guru). In spite of Nicholson's efforts to stop this by imprisonment and whipping, the Nikkul Seynis remained as devoted as ever. The last of the original disciples dug his own grave, and was found dead in Harripur in Hazara in 1858.

When the Indian mutiny broke out and the news of the outbreak at Mirat and the seizure of Delhi reached the Punjab in May 1857, Nicholson was deputy-commissioner at Peshawar. At once movable columns under Chamberlain and Reed were formed, while Cotton, Edwardes, and Nicholson watched the frontier. In May the news of the outbreak of two native regiments at Nawshahra reached Peshawar. The sepoy regiment at Peshawar was at once disarmed, and Nicholson accompanied a column to Mardán to deal with the mutinous 55th native infantry from Nawshahra. No sooner did the force appear near Mardán than the mutineers fled towards the hills of Swat. Nicholson, with a handful of horsemen, pursued and charged them. They broke and dispersed, but the detached parties were followed to the borders of Swat, where a remnant escaped.

On the appointment of Brigadier-general Chamberlain to the post of adjutant-general, Nicholson was selected to succeed him, on 22 June 1857, in the command of the Punjab movable column, with the rank of brigadier-general. He joined the column at Phillaur. There were two suspected sepoy regiments in the force whom it was necessary to disarm without giving them a chance to mutiny and massacre, or to break away beforehand with their arms. Nicholson ordered the whole column to march on Delhi, and so arranged the order of march that the suspected regiments believed themselves to be trusted, but, on arriving at the camping-ground, found themselves in front of the guns and surrounded by the rest of the force. They were at once ordered to pile arms, and only eight men even tried to escape. On 28 June Nicholson, with the movable column, left Phillaur and returned to Amritsar, arriving on 5 July. Here Nicholson heard that a regiment had risen at Jhelam, and that there had been a revolt at Siálkot, in which many Europeans had been murdered. These mutineers, having cast off their allegiance to the British government, were hastening to join the revolutionary party at Delhi. Nicholson determined to intercept them. He made a rapid march with European troops under a July sun to Gurdaspúr. At noon on 12 July he found the rebels at Trimmu Ghaut. In less than half an hour the sepoys were in