held moreover that to lock up another garrison in the city would be only repeating a military error. The only proper way of holding Lucknow, in the Commander-in-Chiefs opinion, was to have a strong moveable column, in a good military position outside the city. Writing on December 12th, Lord Canning agreed with the Commander-in-Chief. By this time, however, the withdrawal from Lucknow had been effected.
On the whole it must be admitted that the Commander-in-Chief had some grounds for preferring a retrograde movement, although in India retreat is generally followed by disaster, and in this particular instance it appeared to many to prolong unnecessarily the difficult operations of the Mutiny. Be this as it may, General Wyndham's unfortunate and unexpected failure at Cawnpur strengthened the arguments in favour of the withdrawal; while viewed merely as a military operation, whether rightly or wrongly conceived, that withdrawal did credit to all concerned. For every member of the garrison, European and native, including the women and children, was brought away from the Residency without the loss of a single life, and 'little was left to the enemy but the bare walls of the Residency buildings.' In the words of the Commander-in-Chief, who had charged Outram with the execution of this measure, 'the movement of the retreat was admirably executed and was a perfect lesson in such combinations.' The whole force was withdrawn at night, and reached the Dilkúsha at daylight on the morning of November 23rd, 1857.
