Description
SIR COLIN CAMPBELL Autograph Letter Signed.
British (Scottish) soldier. Commander in Chief, India during the Indian Mutiny. The architect of the relief and evacuation of Luknow. Won fame as the valiant commander of "the thin red line" of highlanders at the battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War.
ALS. 1p. Lahore. October 6th [no year]. To "My dear Colonel".
"I have just time for two lines, and to send you the accompanying Note from Sir Fred[eric]k Currie about the Fort Adj[utan]t. I will place it all in the night train tomorrow and dispatch the responding letter with your own to Head Quarters. Nothing new her and all as usual at Moultan on the 2? [?]. Ever very sincerely yours, Colin Campbell."
Together with a contemporary steel engraved portrait of Colin Campbell.
8vo. Approx 18 x 11 cms. Lacking the blank leaf of the bifolium. Very good.
A letter written by Colin Campbell during the Second Anglo-Sikh War. "Moultan" is, presumably, Multan, which was captured by the British following a prolonged siege from April 1848 to January 1849. Sir Frederick Currie (referred to in this letter) had been newly appointed as British Commissioner in the Punjab and his demands for taxes and duties to be paid to the Central Durbar had caused tension in the region, leading to the outbreak of hostilities in April 1848. Currie frustrated British commanders by inactivity, not wishing to engage reserve forces during the hot weather and monsoon season and this allowed the Sikhs to greatly strengthen their defences of Multan fortress. Colin Campbell, then holding the rank of Colonel, had been given command of a brigade of troops at Lahore in 1847. He led his brigade at the Battle of Ramnagar in November 1848 and, subsequently, commanded a division at the Battle of Chillianwala. Campbell, however, resigned in disgust when he was later ordered by Lord Dalhousie to mount an invasion of the Swat Valley.A good letter from an early and important event in Colin Campbell's distinguished military career.
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