The Redan Front

The Redan was by far the best battery the Residency possessed. Constructed on a projecting point of high, level ground, the battery was half-moon in shape and was served by two 18-pounders and one 9-pounder. Their fire swept the bazaar houses, and all the low ground below the battery extending to and beyond the river, and up to the iron bridge. No post except the Redan Battery lay between Innes House and the Banqueting Hall and it flanked the whole of this front with artillery fire. It was also one of the only posts, besides the Cawnpore Battery and Slaughterhouse Post to be held entirely by Europeans.

Along the Redan to the north, in an irregular line, extending as far as the hospital was a wall of fascines, and of earthwork, above which were sandbags, between which loopholes were formed. To give some protection to the men traversing the grounds a low trench had been dug, providing some shelter from enemy fire. Two guns, 9-pounders, were placed at the Water Gate just outside the Banqueting Hall, thus completing the line of defence.

From the outside, the wall had a formidable appearance. This line of earthwork having a battery of two 9-pounders at the entrance called the Water Gate, but now blocked up by a stockade, was known as No.1 Battery. Along the Redan, past the Residency and the hospital, and as far as the Bailey Guard was a clear space, formerly used as a garden and bounded by a brick wall to the east, and the buildings known as the Captain’s Bazaar to the north, with a road leading past these boundaries from the Bailey Guard Gate towards the iron bridge. This space, at least a thousand yards long by four hundred wide and while already low became gradually lower at the entrance opposite the upper Water Gate, and formed a glacis for the entrenchments above.

The attack on 20th July nearly proved fatal for the Residency due to a mine that had been sunk towards the Redan Battery.

“… Suddenly we heard a sound that had never greeted our ears before, like a gun being fired off under our feet. John (Brigadier Inglis) immediately rushed out, knowing it was the explosion of a mine. That was the signal for an attack, and fierce musketry firing commenced on both sides. The noise was terrific, and that of heavy cannonading and whizzing shells was soon added. The enemy were completely repulsed with great loss. They advanced very bravely at first. Captain Birch says that the mine exploded in the direction of the Redan battery, leaving an enormous crater. Innes’ house bore the brunt of the attack and gallantly repulsed it under Mr. Loughman, 13th N.I. On the opposite side of our position, an attack was also made on the Cawnpore battery. The enemy advanced boldly and left a scaling ladder inside the ditch, but their hearts failed them, and the hand grenades with which they were saluted quickly drove them away…It was the severest assault the enemy had yet made, and …the bullets fell like hail. I was speaking to a 32nd man today, and saying how foolish it was of the men to expose themselves as they did when there were the trenches to protect them. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘but it’s not in the way of Englishmen to fight behind walls.”

When the explosion took place it threw great clods of earth up into the air, and the men darted out of the way to avoid the impromptu missiles – their commander, Captain MacFarlan, standing in the middle of the scene and hardly moving, was heard to say,
“Well lads, when you are tired of running away, perhaps you’ll come back again.”
The mine proved to be short and the insurgents much to their horror, instead of seeing a breach were met with a battery, primed and ready to fire, with MacFarlan and Cunliffe muskets at the shoulder. Although the fighting was fierce, the Residency would not be taken and the insurgents soon beat a retreat; they had nearly succeeded, managing to come within 25 yards of the Redan Battery before declaring themselves defeated.

Stationed at the Redan for the duration of the siege and hardly leaving it except to engage in sorties, was one Lieutenant Samuel Hill Lawrence. Considered by Innes as the “beau ideal of manly beauty, always genial and smiling whether leading a sortie or waiting in quiet expectation to be blown up at the Redan…” Just 26 years old and serving in the 32nd Regiment of Foot, which was incidentally the same regiment his father had served with, Lawrence soon became well-known for his daring-do. His VC citation says as much. His friend, Clifford Henry Mecham, in the spirit of jest, had another take on the matter
.
“Strange to say, Sam, although commanding one of the most dangerous posts, a volunteer, too upon every sortie; and one of the biggest men in the garrison, escaped throughout without a scratch. Some of his comrades aver that he principally exposed his burly personage upon these desperate sallies in a hope of obtaining of the wherewithal to replenish a stomach, which he alleged, suffered sadly from the uncompromising diet furnished by the Commissariat. How far this may be true I cannot tell; but it is certain that he was ever foremost on those occasions.”

The Residency Building

It is difficult to imagine that this had once been “an imposing edifice, along the west front of which extended a wide and lofty collonaded verandah. The main entrance was on the east side, under a handsome portico.”  This beautiful brick building, besides having a ground floor, two upper stories, the tyekhanna had “splendid apartments, as lofty and as well arranged as any in the house. Skylights gave excellent light to them…There were little turrets leading up to a fine terrace whence a view of the whole city could be obtained…”  On top of the building, a semaphore had been built and a flagstaff. A lookout was posted on the roof throughout the siege. The gardens surrounding the building were carefully planned and abounded with flowers and trees, but fairly soon, the railings around the flowerbeds were used as firewood, the flowers trampled, the trees destroyed and everywhere lay piles of shot and shell. To protect the front of the building, large stacks of firewood had been stored and arranged into a semi-circle. This formed an embankment, about 6 feet high, with embrasures cut through it for four 9-pounders. Dirt had been thrown on the rampart, giving the illusion it was made of solid earth.  

The large windows proved impossible to barricade, and the roof, with its open balustrade, was all but defensible. Sir Henry Lawrence was mortally wounded in a room on the second floor on the 2nd of July, and shortly after, the women and children who had found shelter in the upper storeys moved to the ground floor, but they did not stay long. Some were lucky, they had friends with room to spare in other houses, or influential husbands who secured them quarters in the Brigade Mess – the rest of them fled to the tykhannas.

Undoubtedly, the tykhannas were the buildings’ best feature.  These had been built to afford the Resident some respite from the gruelling heat of a Lucknow summer, but without any punkahs in place, and lacking any “conveniences”, these rooms turned from an abode of luxury to rather terrible places. The women of the 32nd, their children and many of the families of the Uncovenanted services found shelter in these dark and damp chambers, and when cholera and smallpox made their unwanted appearances, the living conditions down there must have been grim indeed.

On the 24th of August, yet another part of the building fell in, this time, the verandas on the west side, their entire length came down, burying another seven men. The arches of the lower storey were found to be cracked and could no longer withstand a heavy cannonade– it was estimated that nearly one-half of the building had fallen in due to round shot, and the rest was now in imminent danger of following suit. Eventually, the engineers declared the building unsafe, although men of the HM’s 32nd continued to use the lower areas as their quarters.

“The moment a man left the entrance pillars he became visible, and from thence, until he reached the gateway, he led the life of a rabbit. But even then, his troubles were not over. A road had still to be traversed, across which the fire was hotter than ever. The enemy could see their victim the whole way, and it was not uncommon for a portly individual, ‘fat and scant of breath,’ to pause for shelter at the gateway to recover wind, preparatory to making his final dart across the road. While so occupied, the enemy ceased firing; but the instant he made his bolt, he was received with a storm of bullets. This game must doubtless have been the source of much amusement and excitement to our rascally foes, but to a man whose duty, in the early days, called him frequently to the Residency, it was the reverse of pleasant, although undeniably exciting.”