Capture of Lucknow

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Capture of Lucknow


caption=
partof=Indian rebellion of 1857
date=March 1 – March 21, 1858
place=Lucknow, Oudh, India
result=British victory
combatant1=
combatant2= Oudh rebels supported by rebel Company sepoys
commander1=Sir Colin Campbell
commander2=Begum Hazrat Mahal
strength1=31,000
104 guns
strength2=100,000 (?)
unknown number of guns
casualties1=127 killed
595 wounded
casualties2=unknown|The Capture of Lucknow was a battle of Indian rebellion of 1857. The British recaptured the city which they had abandoned in the previous winter, and destroyed the organised resistance by the rebels in the Kingdom of Oudh (or Awadh).

Background

Oudh had been annexed by the British East India Company only a year before a general mutiny broke out in the Company's Bengal Army. The mutiny had threatened British authority in several areas of India, and in Oudh the resentful dispossessed rulers and landowners joined with the mutinied regiments in what became a national rebellion.

From July 1 to November 26 1857, the British had withstood the siege of the Residency to the north of the city. When the besieged garrison was finally relieved by the British commander-in-chief, Sir Colin Campbell, the Residency was evacuated. Campbell's communications were threatened so he returned to Cawnpore with all the civilians evacuated from the Residency, and the sick and wounded. However, he left a division of 4,000 men under Sir James Outram to hold the Alambagh, a walled park two miles south of the city.

During the following cold weather campaigning season, Campbell re-established his communications with Delhi and with Calcutta. He also received fresh reinforcements from Britain and built up a substantial transport and supply column.

Campbell suggested leaving Oudh alone during 1858, concentrating instead on recapturing the state of Rohilkhand, which was also in rebel hands. However, the Governor General, Lord Canning, insisted that Oudh be recaptured, so as to discourage other potential rebels.

Campbell's advance

Campbell's army crossed the Ganges River in late February, and advanced to rendezvous with Outram at the Alambagh on March 1. The army was now organised into three infantry divisions under Outram, Brigadier Walpole and Brigadier Lugard, and a cavalry division under James Hope Grant. A force of 9,000 Nepalis (not to be confused with the regular Gurkha units of the Bengal Army) was approaching Lucknow from the north, commanded by Brigadier Franks.

The defenders of Lucknow were said to number 100,000. This suspiciously large and round figure reflects the fact that the defenders lacked coordinated leadership, and were largely the personal retinues of landowners, or loosely organised bodies of fighters, whose motives, dedication and equipment varied widely. The British were not able to gain any reliable reports of their numbers. The rebels were nevertheless equipped with large numbers of cannon and had heavily fortified the Charbagh Canal, the city and the palaces and mosques adjoining the Residency to the north of the city. They had not fortified the northern approaches to the city on the north bank of the Gumti River, which had not seen fighting previously.

Campbell began by repeating his moves of the relief of the Residency the previous year. He moved to the east of the city and canal to occupy a walled park, the Dilkusha Park, although this time he suffered from rebel artillery fire until his own guns could be brought up.

On March 5, Campbell's engineers constructed two pontoon bridges across the Gumti. Outram's division crossed to the north bank, and by March 9 were established north of the city. Under covering fire from his siege guns, his division captured the grandstand of the King of Oudh's racecourse (known as the Chakar Kothi). Meanwhile, Campbell's main body captured the Martiniere (formerly a school for the children of British civilians) and forced the Charbagh Canal with few casualties.

Capture of the main defences

By March 11, Outram captured two bridges across the Gumti near the Residency, although heavy rebel artillery fire forced him to abandon one of them. Meanwhile, Campbell occupied an enclosed palace (the "Secundrabagh") and a mosque (the "Shah Najaf") with little opposition; these two positions had been the scene of heavy fighting the previous November. In front of him was a block of palace buildings, collectively known as the "Begum Kothi". There was severe fighting for these on March 11, in which 600 or 700 rebels died.

Over the next three days, Campbell's engineers and gunners blasted and tunnelled their way through the buildings between the Begum Kothi and the main rebel position in the King of Oudh's palace, the Kaisarbagh. Meanwhile, Outram's guns bombarded the Kaisarbagh from the north. The main assault on the Kaisarbagh took place on March 14. Campbell's and Frank's forces attacked from the east, but Campbell surprisingly refused Outram permission to cross the Gumti and take the Kaisarbagh between two fires. As a result, although the Kaisarbagh was easily captured, its defenders were able to retreat without difficulty.

Final capture of Lucknow

Most of the rebels were now abandoning Lucknow and scattering into the countryside. Campbell failed to stop most of them, by sending his cavalry after some rebels who had left earlier. Operations temporarily halted while the British reorganised and most regiments fell to looting the captured palaces.

On March 16, Outram finally recrossed the Gumti, and his division advanced on and stormed the Residency. There were disjointed rebel counter-attacks on the Alambagh and the British positions north of the Gumti, both of which failed. A rebel force which was supposed to contain Begum Hazrat Mahal,the wife of the dispossessed King of Oudh, and her son Birjis Qadr whom the rebels had proclaimed King, was driven from the Musabagh, yet another walled palace four miles northwest of Lucknow.

The last rebels, 1,200 men under a noted leader, the Maulvi of Faizabad, were driven from a fortified house in the centre of the city on March 21. The city was declared cleared on this date.

Outcome

Campbell had advanced cautiously and had captured Lucknow with few casualties, but by failing to prevent the rebels escaping, he was forced to spend much of the following hot weather season clearing the rebels from the countryside of Oudh. As a result, his army suffered heavy casualties from heatstroke and other diseases.

Outram had also failed to protest his orders not to advance on the 14th, which had allowed most rebels to escape. Outram was Civil Commissioner for Oudh in addition to his military command, and may have allowed his hopes for pacification and reconciliation to override his soldier's instincts.

Rebel casualties were hard to estimate. British troops usually executed any prisoners they captured, whether armed or not. One of the prominent British casualties was William Hodson, who led an irregular cavalry unit and also served as an Intelligence officer, killed during the capture of the Begum Kothi on March 11th.

References

* "The Great Mutiny - India 1857", by Christopher Hibbert, Penguin, 1980, ISBN 0-14-004752-2
* "Battles of the Indian Mutiny", by Michael Edwardes, Pan, 1963 ISBN 0-330-02524-4