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The negotiations continued for four days with no agreement being arrived at. The Senapati, negotiating in bad faith throughout, then sent word that he had 3,000 men that would soon make an end of Grant and his Gurkhas. To this the Lieutenant replied that he didn’t care even if he had 5,000.


At dawn on the 6 April the enemy renewed the attack and made a determined effort to carry the position by infantry and artillery - fifteen shells landed in the camp wounding two of the elephants - but at all points the Manipuris were met by rapid and well directed fire. Creeping out of the fort with ten Gurkhas, Grant made a brilliant sally and, after dispersing a large body of the Manipuris, returned without loss to the fort. Later in the day, he went out with seven men and, armed with his revolver and a 16 bore double barrelled breech-loader dislodged some of the enemy who were firing from behind a hedge. This having been accomplished, Grant found himself, as he expressed it, ‘in a bit of a hole, for 30 or 40 were in a corner behind a wall six feet high, over which they were firing at us.’ There was no other option, the wall had to be cleared so they charged and ’after the hottest three minutes on record’ succeeded in their aim. Grant returned to the camp after this achievement to find himself faced with a new danger; ammunition was running short. Fortunately, the Manapuris had now learned by experience the danger of approaching within range of the rifles and the frequency of organised assaults began to decrease.


On 9 April, Grant received orders to retire. That night during a terrible thunderstorm, he set out and early on the following morning, joined some troops under Captain Presgrave that had been sent out to meet him. The two parties then returned together to Palel.


Punitive Expedition - Wounded


Affording himself little respite, Grant and his men were attached to the Tammu Column, one of three columns under the overall command of Brigadier-General Collet, C.B., which were to advance on Manipur, capture the Regent, and restore British authority.


Grant and Presgrave were to wait for the advanced body of the Tammu Column under the command of Major Sir Charles Leslie. With this in mind they marched their combined force of 197 men back to Palel, ‘They were advancing towards Palel when they met a picquet of the enemy, which immediately retreated. A little further on they encountered three hundred Manipuris who did not long withstand their attack. Lieutenant Grant, with a portion of his force, pursued and killed fifty of the enemy, and Grant’s charger was shot under him.’ (Manipur, a narrative, refers).


On 24 April a fortified position blocking the road to Manipur was found near the village of Langatel. The mud fort appeared to be garrisoned by approximately 300 Manipuris, a letter written by Grant to his mother shortly after the event gives the following, ‘On 25th I went out from Palel with 50 of my own men, Sikhs, 50 of our mounted infantry under Cox and 50 2nd 4th Gurkhas, the whole under Drury of 2nd 4th Gurkhas. We had orders only to reconnoitre the enemies position, not to attack… Soon they started shrapnel and made lovely practice the enemy replying with 2 small guns and rifles. Then we got impatient and advanced and worked round to their west flank... Then our party charged but were brought up by a deep nullah under their walls, down and up we scrambled and when a lot of our men had collected within 10 paces of their walls, firing at every head that showed. The enemy put up a white flag and I at once stopped the fire. Then they sprang up and fired at us. I felt a tremendous blow on the neck and staggered and fell, luckily on the edge of the nullah rather under cover, but feeling the wound with my fingers and being able to speak and feeling no violent flow of blood I discovered I wasn’t dead just yet, so I reloaded my revolver and got up.


After I had seen all the Manipuris near the fort polished off I sent for a dresser and lay down in one of the huts in the fort and soon had my clothes off and found the bullet had gone through the root of my neck just above the shoulder and carried all the cloth of my collar and shirt right thro’ the wound leaving it quite clean. I was soon bound up and the men shampooed me and kept away the cramp. It was only a very violent shock and felt much better in the evening... The Manipuris here say we killed over 400 so we paid off part of our score against their treachery.’


The next morning the column advanced to Grant’s fort at Thobal to find that it had been abandoned. Triumphant Entrance into Manipur - V.C. Recognition


Entering a deserted Manipur on 27 April, Grant and his men were honoured, ‘My Thobal party, by order of the General, being first to enter the palace on our side... I alas in my doolie did not get up till 2 hours after as it poured all the march and the mud was awful... General Collett commanding the whole army came today to see me and said all sorts of nice things to me.’ (letter to mother dated 28 April 1891 refers)


The Royal Family had fled Manipur, destroying both the Rajah’s palace and the armoury before they left. The remains of the Chief Commissioner and the rest of his party were exhumed from the grounds of the Residency and given a proper burial. Chandra Dhuya Singh, his brother Prince Angao Sana and the Senapati were captured in May, the latter was tried and executed, and the two others were exiled to the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal.


Grant received a Brevet Majority and was awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery and devotion to his country, the decoration being presented by the Governor at Ootacmund, 6 July 1891, and all of the men that were with him at Thobal were awarded the Order of Merit. When questioned about their part in the action at Thobal they attributed everything to Grant, ‘How could we be beaten under Grant Sahib? He is a tiger in fight. When hundreds of Manipuris were coming close he just took ten men out to stop them, and in a minute they had beaten the enemy back. We could not help winning under such a sahib.’


Later that year Grant was appointed A.D.C. to Lieutenant-General Sir J. C. Dormer, Commander-in-Chief, Madras. Promoted Lieutenant Colonel in June 1904 he was given command of the 89th Punjabis in 1906. Made Brevet Colonel the following year he served as Commandant of the 92nd Punjabis, 1907-11. Grant retired in 1913, only to reengage as D.C.O. attached 3rd Royal Scots for service during the Great War. He lived out the rest of his life in Sidmouth, Devon.


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