SIR HOPE GRANT'S DIARY.*
WHILE serving on the Staff of Sir Hope Grant at Aldershot, Captain Knollys, It.A., was allowed to read the diaries kept by his chief in 1857-58, when there was hot work for soldiers on the plains of India. Forthwith the young officer conceived the idea of persuading Sir Hope to permit the publication of a volume drawn from the diaries. The public, we are sure, will be grate- ful to Captain Knollys, so far as the original portion of the book is concerned. As to the chapters headed " Commentatory and Explanatory," compilations which are the gallant captain's own, the less we say of them the better. There is a marked contrast between the modesty and simplicity of General Grant's pages and those obtruded on the reader's attention by his editor. The out- break and course of the Sepoy mutiny are tolerably well known, and unless Captain Knollys had had anything valuable to tell us, he would have done better had he confined his own labours strictly to explanatory notes. It might almost be inferred that one object which he had at heart in bringing out the diary was to vindicate the claims of men like General Anson, Sir Henry Barnard, and General Windham, to a high military reputation. It seems that, in the opinion of Captain Knollys, " Generals Anson and Barnard filled positions which rendered them peculiarly liable to the sweeping, and therefore imbecile criticism which thoughtless mediocrity is wont to lavish on thought- ful ability." That sentence is a measure of the courtier-like tone and generally crude judgment which characterise the interpolated comments of Captain Kuollys. The journal of Sir Hope Grant is really worth reading, and we can only regret that it did not fall into the hands of a soldier-editor capable of taking broader and juster views. The name of Sir Henry Barnard is only lugged in to give an air of impartiality to the apology for General Anson, whose appointment to the chief command in India was and re- mains one of the most notorious of " jobs." He was a clever, gentlemanly man, and the best whist-player in the world, but he was utterly unequal to a crisis such as any Commander-in-Chief in India may be any day called upon to encounter. Nor did that of General Windham, who, we regret to say, was a newspaper-made General, belong to a different category. Interest and connection, not fitness or ability, secured them their commands, and it is an unfortunate thing for the Army that young officers should be so ready to come forward as the apologists of a practice disheartening to the real soldiers and injurious to the national warfare.
Sir Hope Grant's diary is fortunately kept separate from Captain Knollys' " Commentaries," so that the reader, if he be judicious, will skip all the chapters bearing any heading except that of "Journal," and will steadily follow the kind-hearted and excellent General wherever he may please to lead, certain that his enter- tainment will be wholesome and cheerful. The merit of the journal lies in the utter absence of any pretence, in the clear simplicity of its unaffected narrative, and in the fine, soldierly feeling, so resolute, yet so thoroughly humane, that runs through the pages like a vein of pure gold. From first to last the General, as he has unconsciously painted himself, appears the same,—cool, cheery, brave, severe, yet always tender-hearted, and above all, a Incidents in the Sepoy War, ]857-58, compiled from the Private Jodrnals of General knSoirnyHoorapHtartanli.11-1..C.B.:liitoogeathuclir Edligursgliell%'ke:1 vrnaoitXtYlnedbaSoltr.B by
dutiful. Nothing could well read more like an advertisement than the setting furnished by Captain Knollys, nothing less like one than the journal itself ; and whatever opinion any one may have formed of Sir Hope Grant, the estimate must be raised after reading his interesting records.
When the Mutiny broke out, he was in command of the 9th Lancers at Umballa, and speedily joined the advancing column as brigadier of the cavalry. Throughout the Sepoy war his services were rendered on varied fields, and as it was his fortune to see the beginning, to share in the reduction of Delhi, to take a con- spicuous part in the operations in Oude, so he was personally pre- sent at the end, commanding on the Nepal frontier, when the last hostile force was killed, dispersed, or captured. During this period of prolonged and exciting service there was no lack of "incidents," and from among them we may pick out a few illustrative alike of the General and the war.
Early in the siege of Delhi, while Sir Henry Barnard yet lived, the mutineer; full of courage, sallied forth and took post in the rear of the camp. Sir Hope Grant riding forth with Guides, lancers, and guns to reconnoitre, was surprised by their fire, but fell upon them with that audacity which is safety in Oriental warfare. As long as daylight lasted the rebels were driven back, but in the dusk, they got on the flanks and endangered two guns. The Brigader at once got together a few men and charged, but his horse, shot under him, dropped dead :—
" I was in rather an awkward predicament—unhorsed, surrounded by the enemy, and owing to the darkness, ignorant in which direction to proceed. When my orderly, a native sower of the 4th Irregu- lars, by name Rooper Khan, rode up to me and said, Take my horse, it is your only chance of safety,' I could not but admire his fine con- duct. He was a Hindostanee 3fussulman. belonging to a regiment the greater part of which had mutinied, and it would have been easy for him to have killed me and gone over to the enemy ; but he behaved nobly, and was ready to save my life at the risk of his own. I refused his offer, but, taking a firm grasp of his horse's tail, I told Rooper Khan to drag me out of the crowd. This ho performed successfully and with great courage."
The next morning Sir Hope sent for the man, praised him and offered him money ; but Rooper Khan said he would be grateful for promotion, but would take no money. Ultimately he took the rupees reluctantly, and sent them back the next morning, through Major Martin, his commanding officer. He was promoted, and got also the second-class order of merit. Shortly afterwards it became necessary to disarm the regiment to which he belonged. He and his fellow-orderly, Peer Khan, did not place their swords on the heap, but handed them to Sir Hope, saying, " Take you our swords, Sahib, and don't humble us so ; we have done nothing to deserve it." The Sahib was touched, he took the swords, and on the following day, with the sanction of General Wilson, he gave back their swords and horses to the faithful sowars. In 1859 these troopers, who were something more than mercenaries, visited Sir Hope at Lucknow, and he " had the gratification, of presenting to each of them a finely-tempered sword." That is one among many instances of the General's sympathy with his kind. Very different, but not less characteristic, are the anecdotes of the 53rd Regiment. During Sir Colin Campbell's advance on Futteghur, the 53rd, a fine-looking set of Irishmen, good hands at fighting, but not remarkable for discipline, were lying under a bank which afforded inadequate protection. They lost many men, and all of a sudden, without heeding their officers, they dashed forward and speedily cleared the enemy out of a village whence they had been peppered. "The Commander-in-Chief was terribly annoyed, and riding up to the regiment, pitched into it well. But these wild Irish- men were incorrigible ; whenever he began to speak a lot of them exclaimed as loud as they could, ' Three cheers for the Commander- in-Chief, boys ! ' until at last he was himself obliged to go away laughing." While in command of a detached party on a hunt after the Nana, Grant marched to Bangarmow. At his approach out came a deputation, submitting and promising supplies, where- upon the General sent a hundred men of the 53rd to prevent plundering. But soon after a fresh deputation arrived, to say that
the guard were " looting everything." Thereupon, says the diarist :-
" I galloped into the town as fast as possible, and found that nearly one-half the 53rd were absent from their post. I pitched into the offi- cer, and then rode through the streets. There I found several men scattered in twos and threes amongst the different houses, robbing right and left. I made them all prisoners, and handed them over to the guard I had brought with me ; and then returning to the main picket, which I had directed to confine every man who returned, I ascertained there were altogether twenty five men in durance. These wild Irish- men were marched out in front of the house. I had them tied up, and twelve of the number were flogged on the spot. I placed two of the officers in arrest, and caused the guard to be relieved by a party from another regiment. The next morning I paraded the whole of the 53rd,
and gave it them handsomely over the face and eyes. I told them, in the words of Sir Charles Napier, that without perfect obedience, an army is an armed mob, dangerous to its friends and contemptible to its ene- mies? This had a capital effect, and the regiment and myself after- wards became great friends. On the lino of march, whenever they saw me approaching, they were overheard saying to one another, Now, boys, take care of your backs. There is the provost-marshal coining.' "
At the final relief of the Lucknow garrison by Sir Colin, the new- comers were greatly moved by the state of the cooped-up resi- dents, especially the women and children. " I saw one little girl run up to her mother, saying, ' Oh, mamma! there is a loaf of bread upon the table ; I saw it with my own eyes.' I asked one delicate-looking lady if I could do anything to assist her. She replied, Oh, yes ; if you could procure me a piece of cheese, Ishould be so thankful, it is for a sick lady.'" We need scarcely say that the gallant General obtained a piece of cheese, and with difficulty
found the lady who wanted it. But the oddest incident was, this. When he urged the ladies to-move, all rose and made for
the doolies except " one nice, gentle-looking lady, who was seated on the floor. ' Really, madam,' I said to her, ' you must get up, or you will lose your conveyance.' ' I cannot move,' she answered, in a melancholy tone of voice. My heart warmed towards her, and fancying she was suffering from a severe wound, said, in equally doleful accents, Have you been wounded ?" No,' she replied, ' it's rupees !' " She bad a bag of Government treasure in her lap, and could not rise until the General raised the silver.
Of course he saw her and it safely into a dooly. The poor woman's husband had charged her to deposit the cash in the treasury at Cawnpore, and here she was faithfully fulfilling the trust.
These are only a few examples of the interesting touches of a fine humanity, not altogether wanting iu something like humour, which are scattered through the General's contribution to Captain Kuollys' book. At the very end of the war we find him on the Nepal frontier, having chased the last of the mutineers into the jungle. " It was sad to see many of the poor wives of the Sepoys," he writes, " who had accompanied their husbands, deserted and left to die on the bare ground. One of these wretched women was lying in the last stage of exhaustion and sinking fast, with her long, black hair hanging dishevelled about her face, one child at her breast and another standing by her side. I told one of my staff to fetch a dooly for her and her children. When she heard the order, she raised herself up and gave a look of wild, unutterable joy, thinking in all probability that her poor, starving babes would be saved ; but the effort was too much for her, and she again sank into her previous position. The eight was truly touching. Poor creature! She was put into a dooly and taken care of. She ulti- mately recovered." With this anecdote we close a little volume which, Captain Knollys' share in it apart, is a work of real historical value.
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