On September 16 the following division orders appeared, and in it was inaugurated the “honourable command”:

All Cawnpore Division Reports to be made for the information of Sir James Outram, K.C.B., commanding.
The force, selected by General Havelock, which -shall march to relieve the garrison at Lucknow, will be constituted and composed as follows : —
First Infantry Brigade. — The 5th Fusiliers ; 84th Regiment, Detachments, 64th Foot and 1st Madras Fusiliers; BrigadierGeneral Neill commanding, and nominating his own Brigade staff;
Second Infantry Brigade. — H.M. 78th Highlanders; H.M. 90th Light Infantry, and the Sikh Regiment of Ferozepore; Brigadier Hamilton commanding, and nominating his own Brigade staff.
Third (Artillery) Brigade. — Captain Maude’s Battery. Captain Olpherts’s Battery. Brevet-Major Eyre’s Battery. Major Cooper to command, and to appoint his own staff.
Cavalry. — Volunteer Cavalry to the left, Irregular Cavalry to the right. Captain Barrow to command.
Engineer Department. — Chief Engineer, Captain Crommelin; Assistant Engineers, Lieutenants Limond and Judge. Major-General H. Havelock, C.B., to command the force.

The important duty of relieving the garrison of Lucknow had been first entrusted to Major-General Havelock, C.B.; and MajorGeneral Outram feels that it is due to this distinguished officer, and the strenuous and noble exertions which he has already made to effect that object, that to him should accrue the honour of the achievement.

Major-General Outram is confident that the great end for which General Havelock and his brave troops have so long and so gloriously fought, will now, under the blessing of Providence, be accomplished.

The Major-General, therefore, in gratitude for, and admiration of, the brilliant deeds of arms achieved by General Havelock and his gallant troops, will cheerfully waive his rank on the occasion and will accompany the force to Lucknow in his civil capacity — as Chief Commissioner of Oude — tendering his military services to General Havelock as a volunteer. On the relief of Lucknovv. the Major-General will resume his position at the head of the forces.

Preparations for the relief of Lucknow began as soon as Outram arrived. There was little time to waste – the latest reports from the Residency had been disheartening; the garrison was holding its own but supplies were dwindling and unless they were relieved soon, Havelock would arrive only in time to bury their starved corpses, or so he believed. Havelock felt he had failed Cawnpore – it would be more than a man could bear if he lost Lucknow too. Time, therefore, was of the essence and no more delays could be allowed.
Had Havelock known the garrison at Lucknow, though underfed, was not on the brink of starvation – a supply of grain had been found in the grounds which had lain forgotten in a disused plunge bath – and although signs of scurvy had begun to show, they were by no means dying as yet. They were sorely pressed by the mutineers, the near continuous bombardments had reduced the Residency buildings to piles of ruins, but it was to Havelock’s credit the Residency continued to hold out. He had managed, through his continued campaign on both sides of the Ganges to draw off much of the attention from Lucknow and turn it on himself. Now Outram’s advent onto the scene, the thrashing they had received from Eyre and Johnson on the river had given them a moment’s pause. Zamindars who had previously thrown in their lot with the rebels were slowly starting to change sides – the final crushing blow would come when the news of the fall of Delhi would arrive in Oudh- there would be no reinforcements coming from Delhi for the rebel cause but a small storm of battle-hardened Europeans who would leave the city on the 24th of September with the sole objective of re-taking Oudh. The tide was turning, albeit slowly. With the end of the siege of Delhi, a new chapter of the mutiny was starting to unfold and the main center for now, would be Lucknow and the battle for it was about to begin.

The work of moving the force over the river had started, however, before Outram’s arrival and was left in the able charge of Captain Crommelin. It had been decided that a single passage over the river was needed, and the former routes, already constructed, which had connected the three islands, were decided upon, firstly because Crommelin already knew the river in those parts and being close to the current town, they could rely on artillery support from the entrenchment if needed.
On the 14th of September, Crommelin was advised that the rebels had begun constructing their own battery close to the site of the former bridge of boats – without any delay, two 24-pounders opened upon the rebels, crushing their fledgling battery and causing them to flee. Captain Crommelin, on the same afternoon, crossed the river in the steamer with 100 men of the Madras Fusiliers to ascertain not only the depth of the three minor channels but also to reconnoitre the immediate area. To his dismay, a shoal had formed in the past weeks – a month before the water had been 22 feet deep and now was shallow enough to ground the steamer. Here, Crommelin and the men would remain, stuck overnight, with the rebels amassing on the banks. However, the lesson of the 24-pounders was still fresh in their minds, and they did not venture to molest either Crommelin or the steamer, staying well out of their range. While it was impossible to move the steamer, Crommelin crossed the river in a boat and found to his surprise that the rebels had once again disappeared, their own entrenchment abandoned. The river too was more favourable – it had dropped a further three feet and was thus passable, provided a new bridge of boats could be constructed.
As we have seen in “Across the River”, the engineers had been hard at work to provide Havelock with a route across the river – they had connected three islands by means of a causeway and the ingenious method of floating platforms which could be drawn across the river by the steamer. However, since Havelock was unable to move back into Oudh following his final retreat to Cawnpore, the entire project had fallen into a state of some ruin – it was now deemed necessary to take it up again, without the leisure of time to build it. On the 16th of September, Crommelin began constructing a bridge of boats.
The next day, a detachment of Brayser’s Sikhs was sent across to the main island to prevent the rebels from harassing Crommelin and his workers. Although the rebels kept a continuous fire from their hiding places in the tall grass, they did no damage as they still had the mind to stay out of range of Cawnpore’s bigger guns. By nightfall, Crommelin had positioned 35 boats, and by the morning of the 18th of September, the bridge had been completed as far as the shoal – from here a causeway was hurriedly constructed, 150 feet in length to the opposite bank, on the same day.
While Crommelin was busy with his construction work, the Sikhs were no less occupied. Reinforced by 100 men of the 78th Highlanders and four of Maude’s guns, they were able to throw up a breastwork for their protection on the island. While rebel skirmishers carried on with their firing to allow a body of infantry to bear down on the riverbank, Maude’s guns quickly beat them back. Not to be outdone, the rebels brought three of their own guns into play – and for the rest of the day, there was a constant cannonade from both parties. Several shots fell among Crommelin’s workers, but without injury. Work was, however, stopped, not by the rebels but by the weather. A severe storm and the accompanying heavy rain forced everyone to stop the day’s play, and caused a minor headache for the already busy engineer who would have to contend with repairing the damage to his fledgling bridge overnight.
On the 19th of September, Crommelin declared his duty done and the whole force, consisting of 3500 men of all arms, with no less than 12 field guns, crossed the bridge and the islands before sunrise. They took up their position along a ridge of sand hills less than a mile from the main bank of the river, and by noon, their camp was pitched.
Next came the heavy carts and wagons, which invariably stuck fast in the mud on the banks of the islands, but by the 20th of September, even these had crossed over into Oudh – the whole of the stores, baggage and ammunition needed for the advance towards Lucknow. One of these carriages was more intended for personal use – Major North conveyed his palanquin carriage across the river, intending it for the use of “some poor sufferer”, but above all, he intended it as his bed and his office in which to read and write during halts. North, it would seem, was not much a man for tents.
It had taken Crommelin 42 hours to construct this bridge, some 2090 feet in length, composed of nothing less than 74 boats over a river which in some places was running more than 6 miles in an hour. It was a remarkable piece of engineering, and in a letter to his brothers, Crommelin wrote,
“I never worked harder in my life – For four days I was perpetually up to my middle in water, urging on the Coolies and directing their efforts…” While Crommelin viewed his own efforts as merely an engineer’s duty, it was due to the ingenuity of men like him that Havelock’s force could march to Lucknow at all, but it is with some honour that he would remain one of the three men in whom Havelock implicitly confided.
For the men who had been so long waiting in Cawnpore, who had fought their way into Oudh and back again, a single worry remained in their minds – in light of the fresh troops, would they be left along the route of march, to garrison desolate posts, but their fears were unfounded. Everyone was going to Lucknow, even the regimental bands, to “make as much noise as possible and show off at Lucknow.” (Groom). Touchingly, the Madras Fusiliers even packed up cases of sugar plums for the children of the Residency and boxes of sundry items “to bring some comfort to their mothers. “