he
Gwalior Contingent on the 6th of December, 1857, it would have been
impossible for the Europeans to have guarded their prisoners, and, for
that reason, it was obvious that prisoners were not to be taken; while
on the part of the rebels, wherever they met a Christian or a white man,
he was at once slain without pity or remorse, and natives who attempted
to assist or conceal a distressed European did so at the risk of their
own lives and property. It was both horrible and demoralising for the
army to be engaged in such a war. Looking back to those days, over my
long experience of thirty-five years in India, I must admit that, with
few exceptions, the European soldiers went through the terrible scenes
of the Mutiny with great moderation, especially where women and
children, or even unarmed men, came into their power.

On the 10th of November the total force that could be collected for the
final relief of Lucknow was encamped on the plain about five miles in
front of the Alumbagh. The total strength was under five thousand of all
arms, and the only really complete regiment was the Ninety-Third
Highlanders. By this time the whole regiment, consisting of ten
companies, had reached the front, numbering over a thousand men in the
prime of manhood, about seven hundred of them having the Crimean medals
on their breasts. By the afternoon of the 11th of November, the whole
force had been told off into brigades. The Fifty-Third Shropshire Light
Infantry, the Ninety-Third, and the Fourth Punjab Infantry, just come
down from Delhi with Sir Hope Grant, formed the fourth brigade, under
Colonel the Hon. Adrian Hope of the Ninety-Third as brigadier. If I am
not mistaken the whole of the Fifty-Third regiment were not present. I
think there were only six or seven companies, and there was no
field-officer, Captain Walton, late commandant of the Calcutta
Volunteers, being the senior captain present.[11] Under these
circumstances Colonel Gordon, of ours, was temporarily put in command of
the Fifty-Third. The whole force was formed up in a line of columns on
the afternoon of the 11th for the inspection of the Commander-in-Chief.
The Ninety-Third formed the extreme left of the line in quarter-distance
column, in full Highland costume, with feather bonnets and dark waving
plumes, a solid mass of brawny-limbed men. I have never seen a more
magnificent regiment than the Ninety-Third looked that day, and I was,
and still am, proud to have formed