On March 2nd the Commander-in-Chief, with Lugard's division, a cavalry division, four heavy guns and three troops of horse-artillery, moved forward to the Dilkoosha by way of the Alumbagh and the fort of Jellalabad, sweeping aside as he marched some trivial opposition. When all the forces had come up, his camp in rear of the Dilkoosha extended to Bibiapore and the Goomtee on the right, to the left as far as the Alumbagh. Franks arrived on the 5th and his column became the Fourth Infantry Division. The position was strongly garnished with heavy guns on the edge of the Dilkoosha plateau to keep down the fire from the canal front and the Martinière, and with others down on the river side on the outer flank of the Dilkoosha park to enfilade the Martinière and command the left bank of the Goomtee.
For the important duty of operating on the left bank the Chief had selected Sir James Outram, who for the last three months had been gallantly holding the Alumbagh against overwhelming odds. While he was receiving his instructions from the Commander-in-Chief, two cask-bridges were being thrown across the Goomtee near Bibiapore. As by a mistake they were constructed within range of the fire from the Martinière, Outram was ordered to cross with his division before dawn of the 6th. Hope Grant, who was Outram's second in command and had charge of the passage of the river, records that, "Sir Colin, being anxious to get the division across before the enemy could discover our position and open upon us, rode down to the river side, and pitched into everybody most handsomely, I catching the principal share. But this," he frankly says, "had a good effect and hastened the passage materially--everything was got over in safety just as daylight appeared." Sir Colin understood the art of "pitching in" better than most people; he did not frequently resort to it, but the impression it created was immediate and stirring.
Outram took out a very fine force consisting of the Third Infantry Division, the Bays, and the Ninth Lancers with a body of Punjaub horse, five field-batteries, and an engineer detachment. When about to camp across the Fyzabad road he was threatened by a body of rebels, who were speedily driven back into Lucknow by the field-guns and artillery. In this skirmish fell a gallant officer, Major Percy Smith of the Bays. During the night of the 8th, under instructions from headquarters, Outram's people were engaged in preparing batteries for twenty-two heavy guns which Sir Colin had sent across for the purpose of bombarding the Chukur Kotee, the key of the enemy's position on the left bank. The batteries opened at daybreak of the 9th and in a few hours Outram's ardent infantry had carried the Chukur Kotee, whereby the enemy's outer line of entrenchments on the right bank was turned and taken in reverse, and had reached and occupied the enclosed position of the Badshahbagh. Outram promptly moved to the village of Jugrowlee on his extreme left a heavy battery whose fire enfiladed the enemy's outer line on the canal.