Queen Victoria’s Little Wars

430 Pages·1985·19.06 MB·English

by  Byron Farwell

BYRON FARWELL
QUEEN VICTORIA’S
LITTLE WARS
W W NORTON & COMPANY
New York London
Copyright © 1972 by Byron Farwèll.
All rights reserved.
Published simultaneously in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Ltd,
2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario L3R1B4.
First published as a Norton paperback 1985
by arrangement with Harper & Row, Publishers
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Farwell, Byron.
Queen Victoria’s little wars.
Reprint. Originally published: New York: Harper
& Row, 1972.
Bibliography : p.
Includes index.
1. Great Britain—History, Military—19th century.
1. Title.
DA68.F37 1985 909.81 85-9002
ISBN 0-3^3-30235-0
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
W. W. Norton & Company, Ltd., 37 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3NU

7 8 9 0
TO RUTH
my wife

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
List of Medals xi
Maps xii
Acknowledgements xv
Foreword xvii
1 Opening Shots of the Reign, 1837-42 1
2 War in China, 1840-54 12
3 Sind and Sikhs: a Napier and a Gough, 1843-45 23
4 The First Sikh War, 1845-46 37
5 The Second Sikh War, 1848-49 51
6 Other Wars in Other Places, 1848-54 61
7 Crimea: The Light Brigade and All That, 1854-55 68
8 Mutiny in India, 1857 84
9 The Dangerous Days, 1857 95
10 The Siege and Relief of Lucknow, 1857 112
11 Final Relief of Lucknow and End of the Mutiny,
1857-58 122
12 China and Elsewhere, 1858-61 134
13 The North-West Frontier, 1855-63 144
14 The Umbeyla Campaign, 1863 153
15 Africa, 1863-68 163
16 Wolseley: Red River and Army Reform, 1870-73 179
17 Wolseley in Ashantiland, 1873-74 190
18 Roberts’s War, 1878-79 200
19 From Kabul to Kandahar, 1879-80 211
Contents
20 Zulus, 1878-79 218
21 Incidents in the Zulu War, 1879 229
22 Poor Sir George Colley, 1881 241
23 Wolseley versus Ardbi and the Queen, 1881-82 253
24 The Sudan I : Heroes in Distress, 1883-84 270
25 The Sudan II: Too Late! 1884-85 282
26 Troubles on the Empire’s Fringes: Manipur and
Chitral, 1890-95 295
27 The Frontier Aflame, 1897 311
28 Tirah, 1897-98 318
29 Back to the Sudan, 1896-98 330
30 The Boer War I: 1899 339
31 The Boer War II: 1900 347
Appendix I The British Regiment 354
Appendix II The Little Wars 364
Appendix III Some British Orders 372
Bibliography 373
Index 383
viii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Follmving page 1^0:
1 Lady Butler’s ‘The Remnants of an Army’
2 Capture of Sir William Macnaghten
3 Sir Charles Napier
4 Sir Harry Smith
5 John Nicholson
6 Viscount Gough
7 Two Sikh officers
8 Captain and Mrs Duberly
9 A group of soldiers at Lucknow
10 Damage caused by a mine during the siege of Lucknow
11 General Sir Colin Campbell and his chief of staff
12 The end of two mutineers
13 Loading an elephant during the Abyssinian campaign
14 Soldiers on guard at Magdala
15 Troops landing on the Gold Coast
16 Wolseley receiving news from the front
17 Ali Musjid in the Khyber Pass
18 Afghan hillmen attacking a British convoy
Follmring page 23<i:
19 Upper Bala Hissar, Kabul
20 General Roberts and his staff
21 The retreat from Majuba Hill
22 Sir George Colley
23 Tel-el-Kebir
24 Queen Victoria distributing Egyptian war medals
25 The Nile expedition for the relief of General Gordon
26 Fighting near Gilgit
27 Ethel St Clair Grimmond
IX
List of Illustrations
28 An elephant battery
29 Sher Afzal and his advisers
30 Lieut. Harley, Lieut. Gurdon, Capt. Townsend, Surgeon-Major
Robertson at Chitral
31 Chitral Fort
32 View at Dargai
33 General Cronje
34 Lord Roberts and his family
SOURCE OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The author and publishers wish to acknowledge the following
for permission to reproduce photographs: The Tate Gallery,
London for No. 1 ; Radio Times Hulton Picture Library for
Nos. 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12-15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 33;
National Army Museum for Nos. 3, 11, 19, 28, 32, 34; The
Mansell Collection for Nos. 10, 16, 21, 25; India Office Library
and Records for No. 9. Nos. 29, 30, 31 are from Chitral by Sir
G. Robertson, Methuen 1898, and No. 5 is from Rait: The Life
and Campaigns of Hugh First Viscount Gough, Constable 1903.
The maps on pp. xii-xiv were drawn by Leo Vernon.
LIST OF MEDALS
USED AS CHAPTER DECORATIONS
Foreword Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (reverse)
Chapter 1 Afghanistan Medal (reverse)
2 China Medal (reverse)
3 Gwalior Campaign Star (obverse)
4 Sutlej Campaign Medal (reverse)
5 Punjab Campaign Medal (reverse)
6 Second India General Service Medal (reverse)
7 Crimea Medal (reverse)
g
„ Indian Mutiny Medal (reverse)
y
10 Victoria Cross (obverse)
11 Indian Mutiny Medal (reverse)
12 China Medal
13
^ Second India General Service Medal (reverse)
15 Abyssinian Medal (obverse)
16 Canada General Service Medal (reverse)
17 Ashanti Medal (reverse)
18 Medal for Afghanistan (reverse)
19 Kabul to Kandahar Star (obverse)
20 Medal for South Africa (reverse)
21 Victoria Cross (obverse)
22 Medal for South Africa (reverse)
23
24 Egyptian Medal (reverse)
25 Khedive’s Bronze Star (obverse)
26 Third India Medal (reverse)
27 Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (obverse)
28 Third India Medal (reverse)
29 Sudan Medal (reverse)
30 South African Medal (reverse)
31 South African Medal (obverse)
xi