The Indian Mutiny medal awarded to Lieutenant-General Francis Rowcroft, C.B., Brigadier Commanding the Sarun Field Force, to which Pearl’s naval brigade was attached from November 1857 to January 1859

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Brigr. F. Rowcroft, Comg. Sarun Field Force.) toned, nearly extremely fine £1,800-£2,200

Francis Rawdon Edward Rowcroft was born in London on 29 August 1802. He was appointed Ensign in the Bangal Native Infantry on 7 October 1819; Lieutenant, 14 September 1821; Captain, 7 August 1829; Major, 26 May 1843; Lieutenant-Colonel, 14 November 1849; Brevet Colonel, 28 November 1854; Colonel 15 May 1859.

Rowcroft was commanding the 8th Native Infantry as Brevet Colonel when it mutinied at Dinapore on 25 July 1857. He afterwards transferred to the newly-raised 6th Bengal European Infantry. Colonel Rowcroft commanded the Sarun and Goruckpore Field Force with the Naval Brigade of H.M.S. Pearl, in the Goruckpore District, during the Indian War of 1857 and 1858. He served in Command of the Field Force in the successful actions of Shohunpore, 26th December 1857; Phoolpore, in Oude, on the Gogra, capturing three guns, 20th February 1858; of Amorah, near Fyzabad, capturing eight guns, 5th March 1858. Appointed Brigadier from 1st January 1858. Commanded in the actions of 17th and 25th April 1858, near Amorah; of the 26th November and 3rd December 1858, on the Raotee; and present at the battle of Toolseepore, near the Nepal Hills, against Balla Rao and Mahomed Hussun, capturing two guns, 23rd December 1858: in the several actions captured sixteen guns (Medal; C.B. London Gazette 16 November 1858). Promoted to Major-General, 1 January 1862, and to Lieutenant-General, 25 June 1870. Lieutenant-General Rowcroft died at Holcombe, Dawlish, Devon, on 22 March 1877, aged 74.

The following account of the operations of the Sarun Field Force and Pear’s Naval Brigade, under the command of Brigadier Francis Rowcroft is taken from Naval Brigades in the Indian Mutiny by W. L. Clowes:

[H.M.S. Pearl’s Naval] Brigade was attached to the Sarun Field Force, of which, on November 27th [1857], Colonel Rowcroft took command at Myrwa. It first came into action with the mutineers on December 20th at Sohunpore, where an entrenched position was taken, and the enemy was dispersed. No one belonging to the Brigade was hurt.

By February 8th, 1858, the force arrived at Burhul, whence it moved up the Gogra in 150 boats, escorted by the small steamer Jumna,reaching Ghopalpur on the 10th; and on the 17th the strong fort of Chanderpur was captured by Captain Sotheby with 130 of the Brigade, 85 Sikhs, and 60 Gurkhas, acting in concert with the Jumna, which was under the orders of Second-Master John Fowler. Two guns were captured. The casualties on the side of the attack were insignificant, only about four people being wounded. On the evening of February 19th, Nourainie Ghat was reached. That night a fort on the Oudh side of the river was seized; and, on the afternoon of the following day, an attack was made upon a body of rebels at Phoolpur. After a gallant and well-sustained action, the enemy was driven from the field, with a loss of three guns. Two days afterwards, the Brigade recrossed the river by a bridge of boats which it had constructed. There had been some friction with the native allies; and it was deemed advisable to keep a British force to guard the rear of the advance, large numbers of rebels being reported in the vicinity of Fyzabad.

The Brigade marched to Amorha on March 2nd. Colonel Rowcroft was there informed that the fort of Belwa, seven miles further on, was occupied by the mutineers. In the afternoon, 168 men of the Brigade, with four guns, some 24-pr. rockets, 35 Sikhs, and a regiment of Gurkhas, moved to Belwa, and, being there joined by the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry, 250 strong, opened fired on the fort at 5 p.m. The place, however, proved stronger than had been anticipated; and, when darkness came on, the whole force withdrew to the Yeomanry camp, and, on the day following, returned to Amorha. That night and the succeeding day the rebels received very large reinforcements, chiefly from Fyzabad, but also from Nawabgunge, Gondah, and elsewhere. The retirement from before Belwa had been interpreted as a British defeat; the Sarun Field Force, including the sick, was not then more than 1500 strong; and the mutineers, having collected many thousands of men and fourteen guns, were eager and confident. The little camp was, therefore, rendered as defensible as possible by means of an enclosing line of rifle-pits, and the clearing away of all jungle and houses which could shelter an advance.

On the morning of March 5th, it was reported that the rebels were about to attack. The force thereupon moved out, and took up a position about half a mile to the west of the village of Amorha, with the Naval Brigade and four guns under Captain Sotheby in the centre, astride of the road, a Gurkha regiment and the small detachment of Sikhs on the left, and another Gurkha regiment on the right. On each flank was a squadron of the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry. The enemy was in such force as to overlap the British force by at least a mile in each direction; and he came on in excellent order in rear of a cloud of skirmishers. The naval guns, under Lieutenant Turnour, opened, and were replied to by ten pieces. After an artillery duel which lasted for some time, Colonel Rowcroft threw out his skirmishers, and began a steady forward movement, which never ceased until the mutineers were driven from the field; for the cavalry, supported by the Gurkhas, cleared the foe from the flanks of the advance. As soon as it was evident that the enemy had been checked, Rowcroft reinforced his Royal Marines, who were in the skirmishing line, with a detachment of seamen, and pressed the foe all along his front. One of the first guns abandoned by the rebels was turned upon them, and worked by Lieutenant Grant, Assistant-Engineer Shearman, Midshipman Lord Charles Scott, and a seaman named Jesse Ward; and, as there was no port-fire wherewith to fire it, a rifle was discharged into the vent, and the retreating foe was plied with his own grape. A brilliant cavalry charge threw the left wing of the mutineers into confusion; and soon the entire body fled, leaving behind it eight unspiked guns. The enemy was pursued for six miles, and, making a brief stand at one point, killed Second-Master John Fowler (actg.) and one Gurkha. Heat and fatigue at length put a stop to the action, which had lasted from 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. The rebels had attacked with about 14,000 men and ten guns, and had been completely defeated, with a loss of about 500, by 1261 men, with but four guns. The Naval Brigade had 1 officer killed and about 15 people wounded.

After the battle, in order to indicate to the enemy that the forces of the Government were confident of being able to take care of themselves, the line of rifle-pits was filled up, and the camp at Amorha was pitched in the open plain. A small fort, however, was built to contain the sick, and the spare ammunition and baggage. There were many alarms until the end of April; and, during that period, the force was joined by the left wing of Her Majesty's 13th Light Infantry, while one of the Gurkha regiments was withdrawn from it and sent to Goruckpur. On April 17th, a detachment went out and defeated a body of marauding rebels near the village of Tilga, capturing a gun; and, on April 25th, another body was met near Jamoulee. Owing to the intense heat, this affair was an unsatisfactory one, for the rebels would not stand and could not be followed far. On the next day, the force moved to Kuptangunge. The enemy was then all round it. With a view to freeing it somewhat, an attack was made on April 29th on the fort of Nuggur by a detachment which included 96 officers and men, two guns, and a rocket tube from the Naval Brigade. The place was taken with but very trifling loss; and in the evening the detachment returned to camp. For some time afterwards the Brigade remained at Bustee, where it went into huts on June 13th. From Bustee, several small expeditions were made against detached bodies of the enemy. One of these expeditions, on May 31st, turned a party of mutineers out of a position near Amorha; and on June 18th, another party of more formidable strength, was defeated at Hurreah, but withdrew in good order.

On August 29th, a section of the Brigade, 50 strong, under Lieutenant Fawkes, with two guns, took part in an engagement near Lumptee, and did good and steady service; and on the same day, another section,under Lieutenant Turnour, also with two guns, assisted in repelling an attack on an outpost at Hurreah, and, following the enemy, routed him on September 1st at Debreah. On the evening of September 6th, Commander Grant, with 73 seamen and Marines, two 12-pr. howitzers, a 24-pr. rocket-tube, and a detachment of the 13th Regiment, left Amorha, with a view to relieving a small garrison of Sikhs in the friendly town of Bansee. At Gondah, Grant was joined by Captain Mulcaster, who arrived with a squadron of cavalry, and took command.

Bansee was reached on the 8th, after a splendid march of 50 miles in 39 hours, the men being often up to their knees in mud, and sometimes up to their waists in water. Bansee was relieved only just in time, for the gallant Sikhs holding it had but three percussion caps per man remaining. From Bansee, the expedition, which had been reinforced on the 10th by Brigadier Fischer, marched on the 12th, reaching Doomureahgunge on the 13th, and driving back a body of the rebels. The howitzers, under Lieutenant Ingles, were most excellently handled. On the 14th, an effort was made to catch a body of mutineers at Intwa; but the roads were so bad that the attempt had to be abandoned; and on the 17th, the expedition returned to Bustee. Another naval force, under Lieutenant Ingles, formed part of an expedition which left Bustee on September 27th for Bansee, and which, having crossed the Raptee, got up with, and dispersed, some mutineers at Mowee on September 30th, after most exhausting marches.

On October 1st, the outpost at Amorha, which included 50 of the Pearl's people, with two howitzers, under Lieutenant Fawkes, was attacked by about 1200 mutineers, with two guns. The enemy was repulsed, after Lieutenant Malay, who directed the howitzers, and four seamen, Lee, Williams, Rayfield, and Simmonds, had especially distinguished themselves.

On October 23rd, yet another expedition had to be despatched towards Bansee. On October 26th, when an insufficient British force was foiled in an attack on the jungle fort of Jugdespore, twenty-five miles north-west of Bustee, it was reported that the Brigade lost its guns in the retreat. There was no foundation for the story, which, however, gave rise to some amusing correspondence in the Indian papers.

In the middle of November, all the outlying parties were recalled, and the whole force left Bustee on the 24th for the northern jungle on the Nepal frontier, only a field hospital and guard remaining. A siege train had, in the meantime, arrived at Bustee, and had been handed over to the Pearl's people. On the 25th, Bhanpur was reached, and a Madras battery joined; and on the 25th, the force moved on to Doomureahgunge, where the rebels were very bloodily defeated, and a halt was made for some days, during which a bridge of boats was thrown across the Raptee, in face of a considerable army under Balla Rao, a near kinsman of Nana Sahib. On the evening of December 2nd, Brigadier Rowcroft learnt that another native force, under Nazim Mahomed Hossein, was six or eight miles up the river, intending to cross and join Balla Rao. On the 3rd, therefore, a detachment, which included 2 guns and 50 men of the Naval Brigade, under Captain Sotheby, went out to the attack, and found the rebels at Bururiah in a strong position. The enemy stood with unusual steadiness, until his flank was threatened; whereupon he retired and scattered, carrying off his guns. The detachment then returned to camp; and on December 5th, the Naval Brigade crossed the Raptee, the rest of the force soon following.

The movement was part of a concerted plan to encircle the shattered armies of the Begum, Lord Clyde being to the westward, Sir Hope Grant to the southward, and Brigadier Rowcroft drawing round from the eastward, while to the northward were the jungles of Nepal. A guard was left at the bridge at Doomureahgunge; and the remainder of the force marched to Intwa and camped there. The siege train, consisting of two 18-prs., one 8-in. howitzer, two 8-in. mortars, and two 5.5-in. mortars, arrived on the 18th and gave the Naval Brigade as much artillery as it could possibly manage. The mortars were entrusted to Lieutenant Pym, R.M. On the 20th, the force advanced from Intwa to Biskohur, in Oudh, and, on the 22nd, to Goolereah Ghat, five miles from Toolseepur, where the remnants of the enemy were collected in great force. On the 23rd, in concert with the army of Sir Hope Grant, the force crossed the Boora Raptee, and attacked. Near the centre were the four naval guns and two 24-pr. rocket tubes, under Commander Turnour, Lieutenant Maquay, and Midshipman Root. The rest of the Naval Brigade, and the siege train, under Captain Sotheby, was as close up as the nature of the ground would admit. In about an hour and a half, the rebels were completely routed, though they carried off most of their guns, and although the pursuit was somewhat ineffective, owing to lack of enough cavalry to undertake it properly. The mutineers numbered about 12,000; the attacking force, which had but 4 killed and about a dozen wounded, only 2500.

This was the last affair in which the Pearl's Brigade took part, and, indeed, the last general action of the Mutiny. The seamen and Marines hoped to enjoy a quiet Christmas at Toolseepur, but were ordered on almost immediately with Brigadier Rowcroft. After a useless pursuit, nearly as far as the Nepal frontier, the force returned. On the last day of the year, the Brigade lay at Puchpurwah; and on January 1st, 1859, it was ordered back to the ship at Calcutta. Brigadier Rowcroft, on taking leave of it on the 2nd, said:

“The successes we have gained are mainly due to your courage and gallantry. I have also observed the excellent discipline and conduct of your Brigade, which reflects great credit on Captain Sotheby, and the officers, as well as on yourselves. I therefore regret to lose your services; but I am glad that, upon your departure, you are homeward bound, which you all so much desire.”