The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-05-31 00:00:00

SIR GARNET WOLSELEY.

The Times of Wednesday gave an interesting remme, ex
tending over two columns, of the career of that distinguished
officer, Sir Garnet Wolseley. We make the following ex.
tracts from the article' :

"At the present moment, when ir Garnet Wolaeley is
about to assume the supreme military and civil command in
Natal, the Transvaal, and the adjacent native territories, a
sketch of the career of that succeasful soldier and admi-
nistrator could not but be interesting to the general public.
A memoir by Lieutenant Charles Low", late of the Indian
Navy, of which he has written a hiatory, ;supplies the popular
demand. . .

"Sir Garnet Wolaeley has been a prosperous man, but
none but the envious will venture to assert that his rapid
advancement has been due exclusively or even largely to
luck. Fortune has, it is true, been propitious to him, but
then he has always been prompt to seize and skilful to turn
to account her favours. He has wcoed the tickle goddess as
she likes to be wooed, en militaire, and has so taken her fancy
that with him she has forgotten to be true to her nature.
"The eldest son of the late Major G. J.Wolseley,of the 25th
Regiment, Garnet Wolseley was born at Golien-bridge
House, County Dublin, on the 4th of Jane, 1833 Educated
at a day school near Dublin and subsequently by private
tutors, he was from childhood destined for the army, and by
studying military history, surveying, and fortification he
sedulously prepared himself for the profession of his choice.
Towards the close of his 19th year he obtained an ensign's
commission in the 80th Regiment, then engsged in the second
Burmese war. He had scarcely joined the depOt when he
was sent, out to Burmah with a draft of recruits, and in
Novemb?r he reached Rangoon. At he beginning of
March, 1858, he arrived at D.,nabew by sea, and on the
7th of the month received his baptente de feu in the opera-
tions against Myat-toon, a slight skirmish having taken
place on that day. We are not writing a history of the
campaign. Ills here su ii dent to say that on the 19th of
March Myat-toon's stronghold was successfully stormed. The
first attack was repulsed with some loss. Ensign Wolseley
was well in front of his men and had reached within twenty
yards of the enemy's works when suddenly the earth gave
way beneath his feet and he found himself at the bottom
of a concealed pit with a stake in it. When his
men were beaten back he was in great danger, but
he managed to Escape without even a wound, though
much shaken by his fall. A second attack being decided
on, the commanding officer of the 80th called for an officer
to lead the stormers from that regiment. Ensign Wolseley
at once stepped to the front, and, hastily collecting such
of his own men as were at hand, made a rush up
the narrow path by which only the enemy's works
could be reachea. At the head of a detachment of
the 51st, Lieutenant Taylor raced for the honour of
being the first man in. Only two could move abreast,
and the two gallant young officers evidently rushed on
their destruction. Both were shot—both shot by gingall
balls in the thigh. Taylor bled to death in a few minutes,
but Wolseley, pressing his lingers on the veins, checked the
flow of blood. Grievously wounded and lying helpless on
his back, Wolseley waved his sword and cheered his men on
to the assault, which this time was successful. When he
first fell, some of his men offered to carry him to the rear,
but he refused all assistance till the work had been taken.
After several months of suffering and danger, be wee sent
home on sick leave, and was only convalescent just before
the arrival of the ship in England. As a reward for his
gallantry he was promoted to a lieutenancy in the 90th Light
Infantry.
"When the Crimean War broke out it was decided that
the 90th shoeld not take part in it, and Wolseley was on the
point of exchanging into another corps in order that he
might see more service. Before, however, he could carry
his resolution into effect the 90th was sent out, and landed at
Balaclava on the 45h of December. Three weeks later
Wolseley was appointed acting engineer, and did his first
tour of duty in that capacity on the 4th of January, 1155.
Daring eight months he served uninterruptedly with
the Engineers, with the exception of a week spent at
Balaclava on sick leave.. Slightly wounded on the 10th of
April and 7th of June, he received a severe and dangerous
hurt on the 30th of August. On the latter day he was work-
ing at the head of the advanced sap of the right attack,
assisting two sappers to flil with stones some gabions which
the Russians had upset just before in a sortie, when a round
shot dashed into the middle of the group. He bad just time
to cry 'Look out! when the whole party lay prostrate on
the ground. The round shot had struck a gabion, scat-
tering the stones with resistless force. One of the sappers
had his head taken off, the other was disembowelled.
Both were killed instantaneously, and Wolseley himself,
lying by their side senseless and covered with blood,
seemed also a corpse. A sergeant of sappers, finding that he
still breathed, picked him up, and after a time he reovered
sufficiently to be able, with the help of the sergeant and
Prince Victor of Hoheniohe, to stagger as far as the doctor's
hut. He then sank exhausted and half unconscious.
Prince Victor asked the doctor to look at bine
He did so, and curtly saying, 'He's a dead un !' was
about to attend to other patients. Wolseley roused, and
irritated by this cool way of dismissing him to the other
world, turned round and said, '1 am worth a good many
dead men yet 1' thus securing the doctOr's attention. A de-
tailed examination showed that if not dead he was very
severely wounded.

" His features were not distinguishable as those of a human
being, while blood flowed from innumerable wounds caused
by the stones with which he had been struck. Sharp frag-
ments were embedded all over his face, and his left cheek had
been almost cut completely away. . . Both his eyes
were completely closed, and the injury to one of them
wts so serious that the sight has been permanently lost
Not a square inch of his face but what was battered and
cut [thous, while his body was wounded all over, just as
if he had been peppered with small shot. He had re-
ceived also a severe wound on his right leg, so that both
limbs had now been injured, the wound in the left thigh
received in Burmah rendering him slightly lame. For
many years afterwards the wound on the shin, received.pn
this 30th of August, caused him much suffering, and when
on duty in Canada, nearly two years after the event, he
was under the necessity of returning to England for
medical advice regarding the bone, which was exfoliating.'
. . " Notwithstanding the serious nature of the injuries
which he had received, Wolseley, who had in December,
1854, after only 21 months' service, obtained his company,
recovered sufficiently to accept in November, 1855, the ap-
pointment of Deputy.Assistant•Quartermaster-General, and
during the following six months was employed in surveying
the country. Oa the evacuation of the Crimea, Captain
Wolseley was one of the last men to embark for England,
where he was destined to remain but for a very few months,
for in the spring of 1857 the 91th embarked for China." •

After several mishaps, one of which was the wreck of the
Transit, the 90th arrived at Singapore, 'I he limes proceeds:
—" A few days after their arrival at the latter place they
learnt that the native army of India had ri,en and that the
troops destined for the China expedition were urgently
required at Calcutta, to which place the detachment of the
990 at once proceeded. From Calcutta they went first to
Chinsuratt, and afterwards in bullock carts to Cawnpore,
where they arrived at the end of September. Wolseley's
first fight with the Sepoys was at Bithoor. Returning from
that place Wolseley was despatched with a convoy,
under Major Barnston to the Alumbagb. This they
reached after a slight skirmish, and on the 14th of
November Mtjer Barnston's battalion of detachments
started with Sir Colin Campbell to relieve the Residency of
Lucknow. Captain Wolseley was hotly engaged through-
out the operattons and displayed the utmost coolness
and intrepidity. This was particularly the case at
' the storming of the Mess-house. Sir Colin Camplasli
I had known Captain Wolaeley by repute in the Ctimea,
sod picked him out to lead the assault. The build-
ing was surrounded by a loopholed mud wall, inside
which was a ditch 12ft, broad, scarped with masonry and
crossed by drawbri.'ges, but it was not known whether the
latter were down or not. The house, which was strongly
built, had been battered by artillery for some three hours
• Rushing across the lutes vening space, well ahead of his
men, he and his company were exposed to a hot fire from the
neighbouring buildings. Arrived at the mud wall above men-
tioned he paused for a moment to recover breath, and then
clambered into the garden, when he came across many match-
lock men who fired at him. Crosaieg the garden he fortuna-
tely found the drawbridge down, and passing over it entered
the house, which had been abandoned, and hastening to the
roof, planted a flag to show that he was in possession. Twice
was the flag struck down by the enemy's bullets, twice was
it replaced, but at length the fire became so hot that Wolse-
ley and his men had to seek cover. Captain Irby, with his
company, came up in support and was ordered to attack
some houses on the left. while Wolseley cleared those on the
right, the fire from both points being very heavy. Having
accomplished this task he resolved, though without orders,
to carry out the Mott Mahal. He encountered severe
opposition and had to send some of his men back to
bring up tools to force the newly built-up gateway.
A private named Andrews, who had been Wolsele)'e
servant in the Crimea, ran out from cover to show
the party bringing up the tools the way. He was im-
mediately shot down by a bullet fired from a loophole
only five or six yards distant. Wolseley at once sprang
out and brought him back. A sepoy from the loophole
above alluded to took deliberate aim at Wolseley,

"The Life of Sir Garnet Wotaeley." By Charles Rath-
hone Low, late Indian Navy, F.R.G.S. 2 vole. London,
Richard Ben Slay and Bon.

but his shot missed him and passed through the body of
Andrews. After a time Wolseley 's men succeeded in making
a narrow hole in a wall, through which an entrance was
effected into a courtyard. The enemy, however; made a
desperate resistance and contested every room. At length
they were driven completely out of the network of build-
ings, many of the garrison being forced into the Geomtee,
where they were drowned. From the Moti Mahal Wolseley
fought his way into the Residency and thus finished as
glorious and hard a day's fighting as any man ever had.
The Times follows Sir Garnet Wolseley in his career
in India, and enumerates his services in China, Canada,
and Ashantee, but our space precludes us from giving
this; we therefore quote the concluding paragraph
"Appointed Inspector-General of Auxiliary Forces, he
was, in February, 1875, sent out to put matters right in
Natal, and by his tact and personal influence was completely
successful. Returning in October to England he resumed his
duties at the War Office, but in November the following
year was appointed a member of the Council of India,
which post he resigned to proceed on the 15th of July, 1878,
to Cyprus. His duties there have been of a peculiarly diffi-
cult character. A new administration has been established,
radical changes of a more or less experimental nature
have been introduced, and the existence of many con-
tending interests has required the exercise of great mode-
ration and tact. Our troops, moreover, have had to
face a trying season in a country where sanitary precautions
had been unknown. Sir Garnet Wolseley returned to London
on the 21st of the present month, having accomplished an
irksome duty to the satisfaction of the Government, and
without unfavourable criticism on the part of the public. A
new task awaits him, and in South Africa he will probably
have a full scope for all his talents as a commander and
administrator."