Memoirs of Major-General Sir Henry Havelock K.C.B.

By John Clark Marshman

Sir Henry Havelock was a British general who served in India, playing a prominent role during the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

First Burmese War, (1824-1826); First Afghan War (1839-42); Gwalior War (1843); First Sikh War (1845-1846); distinguished himself during Sepoy Rebellion (1857-58) - Major general (1857); relieved Lucknow (Sept., 1857) and held it against native siege until arrival of Sir Colin Campbell (Nov. 1857). Died of dysentery at Lucknow, Nov. 24th, 1857.

"A diminutive man, barely five feet tall, and a devout Christian, he was intelligent and able, possessing great energy and determination; his apparent fussiness was belied by his imaginative enterprise in the field". Dupuy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Braunfell Books
• Release date: Mar 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781805231752

Book preview

CHAPTER II.

Havelock endeavours in vain to obtain a Company by Purchase.—Is appointed Interpreter to the 16th Foot; and Adjutant of the 13th Light Infantry.—Mrs. Havelock’s Life endangered by the burning of her Dwelling.—Havelock is at length a Captain.—The Affghan War.—Eldred Pottinger at Herat.—Havelock accompanies the Army to Affghanistan.—Candahar.—Ghuznee.—Kabul.—He publishes a Narrative of the Campaign.—Appointed Persian Interpreter to General Elphinstone.—His Religious Services at Kabul.—Perils of our Position in Affghanistan.—He proceeds with General Sale’s Brigade, which is attacked throughout the Passes.—Insurrection at Kabul.—Murder of the Envoy.—Sale’s Brigade advances to Jellalabad.

Havelock endeavours to obtain a company by purchase.

HAVELOCK had now been seventeen years in the army, and was still only a junior lieutenant. If I stand fast in the world, however, he writes about this time, "I see that some of the acquaintances of my youth are pushing on. George Grote, the banker, was about two forms above me at school, and I knew him intimately. Fox Maule, who has just married Abercromby’s niece, I knew as an urchin; and Lord Edmund Hay, who appeared in the last Gazette as a lieutenant-colonel by purchase, was two steps below me, as second lieutenant, in the Rifle Brigade....I am, I believe, one step nearer a company than when I wrote to you last, and, perhaps, the coronation may give me another. Any augmentation in the army might possibly create a third, by restoring to the 13th the company cut off so cruelly in 1829, so that after all I may be a real captain at forty; at all events I am a pretty contented brevet at thirty-seven. But he could not fail to perceive how highly detrimental it was to his prospects to find others continually purchasing over his head. An effort was now made by his friends at Serampore to prevent this disheartening supersession, and Messrs Alexander and Co., the most eminent of the great agency houses in Calcutta, consented to hold themselves in readiness to make good the value of a company whenever it might be required. The engagement was duly communicated to the regimental agent in England, and the dread of being again superseded was removed. But while Havelock’s letter of grateful acknowledgment was on its way from Agra to Calcutta, the firm was swept into the Insolvent Court by the commercial crisis which at this time extinguished the chief mercantile establishments in Calcutta. His friends then applied to Messrs Mackintosh and Co. for similar aid, and it was cheerfully offered; but before their letter of credit could reach London they likewise had been obliged to suspend payment. A third application was made to the house of Messrs Fergusson and Co., which seemed likely to survive the general wreck, and they cordially responded to the request. Havelock’s pulse now beat high with hope. He considered himself satisfactorily enrolled as a candidate for the first vacant company. Such, he writes to Serampore, are now my prospects, and on a bountiful Providence we must rely to guide us through all attendant difficulties, as he guards us from the greater dangers of unbelief and presumption." But the cup was dashed to the ground when it appeared to approach his lips. Before his communication could reach England this firm was likewise obliged to bend to the adversity of the times. The disappointment was grievous to Havelock’s feelings, for supersession is perhaps the most bitter ingredient in a soldier’s lot.

Is appointed interpreter to the 16th foot.

Thus deprived of the prospect of a company in his own corps, Havelock determined to seek an interpretership in one of the royal regiments. With this view he is endeavoured to perfect himself in the Hindostanee and Persian languages, and then appeared for examination before a Station Committee. He passed the ordeal with credit, and then obtained permission to proceed to Calcutta and pass the higher examination at the college of Fort William, while his family proceeded to the sanatarium of Cherrapoongee, for the health of his third and infant son, Ettrick. He was at once pronounced qualified for the appointment by his knowledge of the native languages. Soon after the interpretership of H.M’s 16th Foot having become temporarily vacant, he was appointed to the post, and started for Cawnpore in June, 1834. He had scarcely reached the station when he heard of the death of the infant, and immediately wrote to Serampore:—

I have been favoured in having been actively occupied with rather a troublesome court-martial, and it is probable that its proceedings will keep me at work today and part of tomorrow. This is better than having, in such seasons, too much leisure for recalling past events and images. But I feel myself so entirely surrounded by mercy that I could not under any circumstances be unhappy, though my human hopes have been so rudely dashed.

A few weeks after he wrote to a friend suffering under a similar bereavement:—

On taking up the ‘Hurkaru’ of the 20th this morning, the afflicting intelligence caught my eye, of the death of your little girl. I hasten to offer my condolences; what are they worth? Positively nothing in the estimation of a father, since they cannot restore to him his departed child, nor reverse the decree of ‘Thou shalt go to her, but she shall not return to thee.’ Yet I have felt the voice of friendship to, be soothing under such circumstances, and the assurance of sympathy to relieve the feeling of desertion and loneliness which with me has supervened on the first shock of this bereavement. I have not adverted to higher consolations, only because I know you have them ready at hand. You will feel, as I have felt, in the midst of the like sorrow, that I ought to check the sigh which intimated a desire to detain in such a world one who was pure and sinless, but yet for whom Jesus died, whose inheritance therefore was secure and imperishable, beyond doubt or surmise or misgiving, as glorious as everlasting.

Appointed to the adjutancy of the 13th.

Havelock did not long hold the post of interpreter to the 16th. An officer of that regiment had qualified himself for its duties, and passed his examination in the College, and was accordingly nominated to the appointment. Havelock now prepared to return to the duties of a subaltern in his own corps; and on the 24th of January wrote, I have every prospect of reaching Agra a full lieutenant of foot, without even the command of a company, and not a rupee in the world besides my pay and allowances, nor a rupee’s worth, except my little house on the hill, and some castles in the air, even less valuable. Nevertheless, I was never more cheerful, or fuller of health and hope, and of humble dependence on Him who has so long guarded and guided me.

Meanwhile the adjutancy of the 13th became vacant, and Havelock made official application for it, through his colonel, to Lord William Bentinck, who, in addition to the office of Governor-General, had recently been appointed Commander-in-Chief. Lord William was no stranger to Havelock’s character as a Christian, or his merits as a soldier. Havelock had been more particularly brought under his notice by an application he had recently presented through the commander of the regiment, that he and the Baptist soldiers, whose numbers had increased, should be permitted to assemble in their own chapel for Divine service, in accordance with their own tenets, instead of being marched on Sundays at church parade to the service of the Church of England. The memorial, to which reference has been made at the close of the previous chapter, was transmitted to the Commander-in-Chief in England, with, as it was understood, a strong recommendation from Lord William Bentinck, who was always in advance of his age; but the concession was not extended to dissenting soldiers before the month of July, 1839. Mrs. Havelock had in the meantime returned from Cherrapoongee to Serampore, and ventured to second her husband’s request in a letter to Lord William Bentinck, in which she pleaded his claim to the vacancy, on the ground of his qualifications and his past services. Lord William Bentinck requested her to cross over to Barrackpore Park. She was received by Lady William with the cordiality of a friend. While engaged in conversation with her, Lord William Bentinck entered the room with a packet of letters in his hand, and referring to the subject of her communication, stated that he was anxious to read some letters to her which had been placed in his hands on the matter. Perceiving Mrs. Havelock’s perturbation, he said, Before I allude to this correspondence, I give you the assurance that I have bestowed the adjutancy of the 13th on your husband, because he is unquestionably the fittest man in the corps for it. He then proceeded to read portions of the letters which had reached him. They were written by officers, whose ill-will had been roused by Havelock’s religious exertions. They described him as a methodist and a fanatic, whose character as an officer was lowered by familiar intercourse with the men, and whose strong religious views would prevent him from acting with impartiality as adjutant. Lord William Bentinck said that from the inquiries he had made, he found that the men who were under the influence of Havelock’s instructions were the most sober, and orderly, and best behaved among the men; he wished him to continue his religious exertions, and, if possible, convert the whole regiment; but, pointing to the letters with a smile, he added, "The adjutant must not