The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-27
VICTORIA CROSS WINNERS
RUDYARD KIPLING TELLS A STRING
OF STORIES OF BRAVERY.
The One Meaning of the Decoration
Some Instances of VaIOrOus Con-
duct in the Indian Mutiny.
Youths Companion.

The history of the Victoria Cross has been
told so often that it is only necessary to
say that the order was created by royal
warrant on Jan. 20, 1856, in the year of the
peace with Russia, when the new racing
Cunard steamer Persia making thir-
teen knots an hour between England and
America.
Any officer or man of the army, navy, re-
serve or volunteer forces, from a duke to a
negro, can wear on his left breast the little
bronze Maltese cross with the crowned lion
atop and the inscription, For Valour'' be-
low, if he has only performed some signal
act of valor" or devotion to his country 'in
the presence Of the enemy Nothing else
makes any difference, for it is explicitly
laid down in the warrant that neither
rank, nor long service, nor wounds nor any
other circumstance whatsoever, save the
merit of conspicuous bravery, shall be held
to establish sufficient claim to the order"
There many kinds of bravery, and if
you look through the records of the All men,
living and dead, that have held the cross
out of the zoo, 900 or so who can compete for
it, you will find every imaginable variety of
heroism.
There is bravery in the early morning
when it takes great courage merely to leave
the warm blankets; on foot and on horse;
empty or fed; sick or well; GOODNESS of
brain that thinks out plan at dawn and
holds to it all through the long, murderous
day; bravery Of mind that forces the crazy
body to sit still and do nothing except show
a good example; sheer reckless rejoicing
strength that hacks through a crowd of
amazed men and comes out grinning on
the other side enduring spirit that wears
through long siege, never losing heart, or
manners, or temper; quick flashing brav-
cry that heaves the lighted shell overheard
or rushes the stockade while others are
gaping, and the calculating craftsmanship
that camps alone before the suffering
rifle pit and Clearly and methodically wipes
out every living soul in it.
Within the last forty years England has
dealt with many different peoples, and-ex-
cepting some foolish hill folk in a place
called Sikkim, who were mslead into de-
claring war-they ALL Zulu, Malay Maori,
Burman, Boer the little hillsman of the
northeast Indian frontier, Afreedi, Pathan
Biluch, the Arab of East Africa, and the
Sudanese of the north country, and the
rest, played thoroughly good game. We
owe them many thanks, for they showed us
every variety Of climate and almost every
variety Of attack, from long-range fire to
hand-to-hand scrimmage, except, of course,
the ordered movements of continental ar
mics and the siege of armed towns.
1t is rather the fashion to look down on
these little wars and call them military
promenades and so forth, but in reality
enemy can do much more than poison your
wells, rush your camp, ambuScade you, Kill
you with, his climate, fight you body to
body, make you build your own means of
communication under his fire, and cut up
your wounded as a religious duty. 1t is in
these rough-and-tumble affairs that many
of the later crosses have been won; though
293 of the total were given for acts of brav-
cry in the Crimea and Indian mutiny.
That last the worst.
The Crimea was fair fighting as far as
the enemy were concerned-no one could
wish for better troops than the Russians
of Inkerman and the Alma-but our own
War Office helped the enemy with ignorant
management and brutal neglect. In the
mutiny of 1851 the Indian empire seemed to
be crumbling like Sandbank in flood and
wherever there were three or four English
men they had to kill or be killed till help
NOT TO BE THOUGHT OF.
No one talks of the mutiny in india to-
day, but sometimes mild old gentleman
who plays chess or paints china, or a dear,
motherly old lady will tell tales that make
you think. But it is not even good to think
of the mutiny. Hundreds of crosses must
have been won then, with nobody near to
see, for the average of work was high.
For instance-these are cases of decorated
men-a man shut up in the residency at
Lucknow stole out three times at the risk
of his life to get cattle for the besieged.
Later he eXtinguished a fire near powder
magazine and a month afterward put out
another fire. Then he led twelve men to
capture two guns that were wrecking the
residency next day he captured an outly-
ing position full of mutineerS; three days
later he captured another gun, and finished
up by capturing a fourth. So he got his
cross
Another young man was lieutenant IN
the Southern Mahratta Horse, and full
regiment of mutineers broke into his part
of the world, upsetting the minds of the
people. He collected some troopers, chased
the regiment eighty miles, stormed the fort
they had taken refuge in and killed, cap
tured or wounded every soul.
Then there a lance corporal who
afterwards rose to be lieutenant colonel.
He was an enduring kind of man. for
he won his cross for taking a hand in ev-
cry fight that came along through nearly
seventy consecutive days.
Then there were two brothers who earned
the cross about six times between them
for leading forlorn hopes and such. Then
there was q private of persuasive powers
ard cheerful disposition" so the book says,
who was cut off in burning house with
nine companions while the mutineers were
firing in at the windows. He cheerfully per-
suaded the enemy to retire, and in the end
all ten were saved. He was man worth
knowing.
Then there was little man of the Suth-
erland Highlanders, private who rose set, to
eleven men with his claymore; and they all
fought.
Even he was not more thorough than
two troopers who rode to the rescue of
their colonel, cut off and knocked down by
mutineers. They helped him to his feet,
and they must have been angry, for the
three of them killed all the mutineers-
about fifty.
Then there was negro captain Of the
foretop William Hall, who, with two 9TH
er negroes, Samuel Hodge and w. ]. Cor
don of the Fourth and First West Indian
Infantry, came up the river with the naval
brigade from Calcutta to work big guns.
They worked them so we'll that each got a
cross They must have done a good deal,
for no one is quite so crazy reckless as
West Indian negro when he is really ex-
cited.
Then there was a man in the mounted
police who with sixty horsemen, charged
one thousand mutineerS and broke them up.
And so the tale runs on.
Three Bengal civilian government OIL
GERS were l believe, the only strict nom
combatants who ever received the cross.
AS matter of fact they had to fight with
the rest, but the story of Lucknow Kav-
anagh's adventures in disguise, of Ross
Mangle's heroism after the first attempt to
relieve the little house at Arrah had failed
(Arrah was a place where ten white men
and fifty-six loyal natives barricaded them
selves in q billiard room in a garden and
stood the siege of three regiments of mutt
neers for three weeks), and of Mcdonnell s
cool medicines in the retreat down the
river are things that ought TO be told by
themselves. Almost any one can fight well
patch up thoroughly bad business and
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