Lahore to Lucknow: The Indian Mutiny Journal of Arthur Moffat Lang

MILITARY GENERAL
Had the camp been allowed to award one VC, the recipient of that honour would have been Arthur Lang, and that by universal acclamation… In September, 1857, an inexperienced young Engineer officer, was given what turned out to be a key role at the turning point of the Indian Mutiny. He had to decide whether the breaches at the Kashmere bastion were wide enough to allow for the attack, and had then led the assault himself. To those who saw him then, ‘fighting like a paladin,’ through the recapture of Delhi, and later through the relief and the final capture of Lucknow, Lang seemed to bear a charmed life.

He was the only Engineer officer to fight in all those major battles, and was three times recommended for the VC. As variously protege, colleague and close friend, he fought alongside Campbell, Napier and Roberts – all of whom ended their careers as Commanders-in-Chief. The beau ideal of a fighting soldier, Lang seemed equally assured of fame and military fortune. He received neither. This book takes from his journal his story of the Mutiny. It gives an intensely dramatic day-by-day account of how Lang and his easy-going friends were transformed into fierce and vengeful warriors, and why in the end he decided that they had done enough.

190 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. #291122