Page:The tourist's guide to Lucknow.djvu/100

Rh "Darkness was coming on and General Outram proposed a short halt to enable the rearguard with the heavy guns, baggage, and wounded men to come up. The proposition showed judgment and prudence, for the Chutter Munzil was a strong position, easy to hold and virtually communicated, by means of intervening palaces, with the Residency. Had the suggestion been adopted the safety of the rearguard would have been assured, and the entrance into the Residency enclosure could have been effected with comparatively little loss. But General Havelock, on the other hand, was desirous of pushing on without delay. The main reasons given for haste were:—the straits to which the inmates of the Residency were reduced; the danger to which they were exposed from mines which might be sprung by the enemy at any moment; the possible desertion of natives under the disappointment occasioned by failure in long anticipated relief; and the want of power in their enfeebled state to resist a new assault of insurgents, if attempted as a desperate but not unlikely venture."

"There was, moreover, the advantage to be gained by following up a success before its first effects could subside. Thus onward went the gallant and devoted band—Highlanders and Sikhs, with Havelock and Outram at their head. General Neill and the Madras Fusiliers followed—charging through a very tempest of fire. The Residency was reached: the garrison was saved."

"But the cost was heavy. As our men approached the Sher Darwaza (now known as Neill's Gate) a tremendous fire opened upon them. General Neill, who was leading, suddenly pulling up his horse, directed his Aide-de-camp, Gordon, to gallop back and recall a half-battery which had taken a wrong road. He remained there sitting on his horse, his face turned in the direction from which he expected the half-battery to emerge, when a sepoy, who had taken post on the gate, discharged his musket at him over the parapet on the top. The bullet entered his head behind the left ear, and killed him. "

"Thus fell one of the bravest and most determined men in the British army; while of the entire force one fourth were killed and wounded."

"The rear-guard with many wounded remained at the Moti Mahal, beyond which they were unable to pass until extricated by a force sent out the following day."

General Outram received a flesh wound in the arm in the early part of the action near Charbagh, but nothing could subdue his spirit; and though faint from loss of blood.