CHAPTER XVI

SIR JAMES OUTRAM AT LUCKNOW—MIANGANJ--
CAMPBELL'S ADVANCE

AT the end of November 1857, Sir Colin Campbell
had marched back to Cawnpur, escorting the non-
combatants who had been besieged in the Lucknow
Residency, while General Outram with a division was
left at the Alambagh. The general encamped his
troops, 3400 Europeans and 1000 loyal Natives, on
the plain, half a mile from the Alambagh, behind which
the British left was placed. The Right was behind the
ruins of an old fort called Jalalabad. These advanced
posts were made defensible and garrisoned, absorbing
600 men. The escorts for convoys, men required for
camp duties, and non-effectives being deducted, there
remained 2000 fighting men available to hold the main
position and some small detached works, the whole
frontage extending over a semicircle of 8 miles.
The outposts were within range of the enemy's guns
in batteries covering the city, and the rebels, placing
outposts to cover the suburbs, gradually covered their
position by intrenchments. Until February 1858,
when the ground became dry, a considerable part of
Outram's front was, however, strengthened by the
existence of swamps.

The rebels had 120,000 organised troops, 130 guns
of various calibres, and many thousands of armed men,
amongst the   650,000   inhabitants   of the   capital of