CHAPTER XV
THE DUAB—GURKHAS AT GORAKHPUR

THE vehicles which had conveyed the wounded
soldiers and Residency refugees to Allahabad
returned to Cawnpur on December 23, and Sir Colin
Campbell, with the main force, then moved by short
marches towards Fathgarh, where the troops under the
command of Brigadier-Generals Seaton and Walpole
were to concentrate with it.

Columns under the command of Major-General
Windham and Brigadier-General Hope Grant, detached
on punitive expeditions, had rejoined when Sir Colin's
brigade, under Brigadier-General Adrian Hope, reached
an; affluent of the Ganges, the Kali Nadi, where it was
crossed by a suspension bridge opposite to the village
of Khudaganj. The planks of the roadway had been Jan. 1858
removed, and the structure damaged, but the piers
and main'chains were intact.

The rebels had retreated to Fathgarh, and the
sappers and sailors, under protection of pickets on
the far bank, had by twenty hours of continuous labour,
directed by Major (later General Sir) Lothian Nicholson,
Royal Engineers, nearly made the bridge passable, when
early on January 22 Sir Colin Campbell rode up to
inspect the work.

The ground rises from the river, and  half a   mile

from it stood on either side of the Fathgarh road the

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