Personal info
- Name: Francis Cornwallis MAUDE
- D.O.B: 28th Oct, 1828
- D.O.A: 25th Sep, 1857
- D.O.D: 19th Oct, 1900
- Award: Victoria Cross
- Occupation at time of action: Second Captain, 3rd Company, 8th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Artillery
- Book: The Complete History - Volume 1
The Advance to the Char Bagh Bridge, Lucknow, India 25 September 1857
25 September 1857
The Indian Mutiny 1857-59
Havelock and Outram had originally intended to make a wide circuit round Lucknow in order to approach the Residency from the north, the strategy adopted by Sir Colin Campbell two months later. However, much of the ground was waterlogged and impassable so instead they advanced up the road to the Char Bagh and the adjoining bridge over the canal. At the bridge there was an enemy battery of six guns. Captain F C Maude’s battery, which was in the leading column, came under heavy musket and artillery fire and many of his men were wounded or killed. One of the first men to volunteer to fill their places was Private J Holmes, 2nd Battalion, 84th Regiment. Lieutenant Colonel Fraser Tytler and Lieutenant H M Havelock VC then charged the bridge. The capture of the bridge and the enemy battery cleared the way for the advance into Lucknow.
Citation
This officer steadily and cheerily pushed on with his men, and bore down the desperate opposition of the enemy, though with the loss of one-third of his Artillerymen. Sir James Outram adds, that this attack appeared to him to indicate no reckless or foolhardy daring, but the calm heroism of a true soldier, who fully appreciates the difficulties and dangers of the task he has undertaken; and that, but for Captain Maude’s nerve and coolness on this trying occasion, the Army could not have advanced. (Extract from Field Force Orders of the late Major- General Havelock, dated 17th October, 1857.)