General Sir James Hope Grant 

Offered: Autograph Note Signed by Grant, asking his correspondent to "tell Sir Archibald that I will see the clothing at 12 oc at my office." 4.5 x 7 inches, folded. With other notes on reverse side. Undated;  Grant probably wrote the letter between 1870-75, while commanding the Aldershot military training camp near Farnborough in southern England (see the back of the note ["... We shall want swords and pouch belts &c" and the notation "Farnborough" in the upper right corner]). 

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[Grant's biography (short)]  [Grant's biography (long)] [Sepoy Mutiny, 1857)]

Sir James Hope Grant in a Nutshell

If you needed something done — something important, something tough — you sent Hope Grant. That's my impression from researching this man's achievements. Hope Grant racked up a battlefield record second to no one — Alexander, Patton, McArthur, certainly Montgomery — take your pick.  Today Hope Grant is known to few, probably because he kept his own counsel and in the process offended seniors who couldn't argue with his successes, but there can be little doubt that Hope Grant's military successes greatly enhanced the reputations of some very recognizable names in British colonial history. Hope Grant (1808-75) served in the Sikh Wars, the 1857 India Mutiny, and China.   

That Grant survived the Sikh Wars and 1857 mutiny in India was itself a miracle, for an account of his campaigns and feats reads like a history of the wars themselves — he seemed to be everywhere, often in fiercely contested hand-to-hand combat. And everywhere Grant accomplished what he was sent to do, often more, often against great odds (being outnumbered tenfold never stopped him):  the desperately contested battles of Chillianwallah and Goojerat; Umballa, Delhi (twice), Lucknow (twice), Cawnpore, Mossa Bagh, Koorsie, the Baree road, Sirsee, Sooltanpore, Trans-Ghorgra ... it's a very lengthy list. (Had he been there, one is tempted to think Grant might have averted the British disaster at Isandhlwana during the Zulu War in January 1879.) 

In China, Grant defeated the Chinese army three times in the open in three months, and dispersed it after battling not just the Chinese, but his recalcitrant French "allies" as well. The strong forts of Taku, mounting 600 guns, were captured. Peking surrendered. The China campaign was universally deemed the most successful and the best executed of England’s “little wars.” 

In his later years Hope Grant literally rewrote the book on British Army training and tactics, dragging the army — kicking and screaming — into a new and successful approach that lasted well past his untimely death in 1875. 

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If you can keep your head when all about you  
    Are losing theirs ... 
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting ...  
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew  
   To serve your turn long after they are gone,  
And so hold on when there is nothing in you  
   Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on" ... 

When he wrote these words, Kipling could have been watching General Sir James Hope Grant on the battlefield, for if you saw the movie Zulu, you have an idea of what Grant was often up against, and how he responded. What follows is largely from the Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 1964), mostly intact but with editorial changes and items from other sources.  — CB 

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Grant served throughout England's first Chinese war, attaining the rank of regimental-major in 1842 and nomination as a C.B. for his services.  

The Sikh Wars 

Grant rejoined 9th Lancers in 1844, which had proceeded to India. There was more than a little unrest among the Sikhs, and Grant found himself immersed in the Sutlej campaign of 1845-46, including the hard-fought battle of Sobraon.  

During 1848-49 he commanded his regiment throughout the greater part of the campaign in the Punjaub, wherein the 9th Lancers were actively employed, especially at the passage of the Chenab at Ramuggur, and the desperately contested battles of Chillianwallah and Goojerat. For those services he received the brevet of lieutenant-colonel, and in 1849 he was gazetted to the command of his regiment. 

During this time the highly principled Grant exercised two traits he had in generous measure: considerable courage and forthrightness (or cheek and tactlessness, depending on your point of view). He reported that an officer far his senior was manifestly intoxicated while the regiment awaited orders to move against the enemy. The second in command declined to meddle in the matter. Grant at once went to the offender and said, “Unless you resign at once, I must report the fact that you were drunk.” The senior had Grant arrested on the spot for insubordination and held for six weeks, pending a court of inquiry, and “was only released by the finding of an open verdict which practically justified the action taken [by Grant].”  

The Sepoy Mutiny, 1857-58 

May 1857. Grant was at Umballa on the outbreak of the mutiny. To describe the part which he took in its suppression would be almost to narrate the history of the Sepoy war. He was appointed brigadier of the cavalry which marched from Umballa to relieve Delhi; he was in the action at Budlee-ka-Serai; in the operations before Delhi, and at the storming of the town; he commanded a movable column marching on Lucknow; was present at the engagement at Kallee Nuddee; the relief of the Alumbagh, and the first relief of Lucknow; the battle of Cawnpore; commanded a flying column which fought engagements at Serai Ghat, Goorsaigunj, and Meangunj; was at the second relief of Lucknow; commanded movable columns at Mossa Bagh, Koorsie, the Baree road, Sirsee, Nawabgunj, and Sooltanpore; and commanded the Trans-Ghorgra force which fought the numerous engagements attending the final suppression of the revolt. 

Many characteristic incidents occurred during these operations — some that might seem straight out of Hollywood. The hand-to-hand fighting in which Grant was often engaged was of a most desperate nature. For instance:  

In one encounter during an exhausting four-month stand in the ridges about Delhi, when darkness was closing in and the overwhelming masses of the enemy were surrounding Grant’s exhausted horsemen, a Sepoy five yards away shot Grant’s charger dead, hoping to capture Grant alive. A native orderly instantly urged Grant to take the orderly’s charger — but Grant refused, instead grabbed the charger’s tail while urging the orderly on, and was “dragged unharmed out of the throng.”  

Yet, with a justice rare in those days and climes, Grant flogged 12 men of the 53rd regiment — in the presence of the enemy — whom he had caught looting. “This very regiment so fully recognized the righteousness of the retribution, and became so warmly attached to the general, that when going into action they would on his approach laughingly warn each other, “Now, boys, take care of your backs; here is the provost-marshal coming.”  

Grant was one of Lord Clyde’s most trusted lieutenants, especially in the conduct of outposts. Whenever he was entrusted with this duty, Lord Clyde was wont to omit visiting the covering force.  

For his services throughout the mutiny Grant was raised from C.B. to K.C.B. (1858), and was promoted major-general, a reward that cost him the value of his commission, 12,000l. 

On to China, 1860 

In 1860, Grant sailed from Calcutta for Hong Kong, having been appointed to command, with the local rank of lieutenant-general, the expedition sent out to China. Grant defeated the Chinese army three times in the open in three months, finally dispersing the army and taking or destroying 120 guns. The strong forts of Taku, mounting 600 guns, were captured. Peking surrendered, and a new treaty of peace was signed. This campaign was universally admitted to have been the most successful and the best executed of England’s “little wars.”  In recognition of this, Grant’s K.C.B. was changed to G.C.B. 

From Madras to Aldershot 

Grant returned to India and was appointed commander-in-chief of the Madras army in 1862. Three years later he was made quartermaster-general at the Horse Guards. 

But in 1870 Grant was tapped to command the camp at Aldershot — an appointment that marked a new phase of instruction throughout the British army.  

Up to that time, the Prussian system of maneuvering troops as two opposing forces had been angrily denounced by most English authorities as childish, even pernicious.  Grant held a different opinion, persisted in spite of all opposition, and finally succeeded in bringing to pass the autumn maneuvers of 1871-2-3,  

“the value of which has been so fully recognised [wrote a 19th-century biographer] that the practice thereof has been continued up to the present day [1890]. He reformed our entire system of outpost duties, in which he had had such wide experience during the mutiny, introduced the war game and military lectures at Aldershot, inaugurated a soldiers’ industrial exhibition, and was a warm supporter of every institution for the social and religious welfare of those  under his command.” 

Act according to your conscience and defy the consequences

“[Grant’s] example is always in my mind whenever I am tempted to do anything ignoble or unworthy.” 

Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 1964, chiefly VIII at 392); Field Marshall Lord Roberts, Forty-One Years in India; From Subaltern to Commander-in-Chief (6th ed., R. Bentley and Son, 1897); Christopher Hibbert, The Great Mutiny of 1857 (Viking, 1978); Michael Edwards, Battles of the Indian Mutiny (Macmillan, 1963).  

One Indian historian, V.D. Savarkar, listed Grant as one of a few "eminent [British] generals and warriors that made their name in 1857"). See Savarkar's The Indian War of Independence 1857 (Phoenix Publications, 1909/1947).  This 1947 book, published in India, bears an interesting notation on the copyright page: "First published in England in 1909 and immediately proscribed. First authorised and public edition published in India 1947."