The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 19, 1857. —a date at which the seriousness of the mutiny bad become apparent—and the Bth of November, 18,660 soldiers of various arms, with 719 offi cers, were disembarked at Calcutta. Of these Madras sent 1,635 men, all native troops ; Bombay sent 1,370 men, which, with the exception of 83 native artillerymen, were all Queen's troops ; Ran• goon supplied 1,921 ; Ceylon, 930; Mauritius, 823 ; China, 1,144 ; and the Cape 200 men. To the 19th of September no troops had arrived from England, save men sent out in the way of ordinary relief', in the steamers Himalaya and Mauritius. On that do, however, the Cleopatra arrived out with over 1,000 men, followed at intervals by other vessels to the end of the month. In October the arrivals became more rapid, but the first eight days of November brought 4,500 men—nearly as many as had arrived in the previous seven months, and making the total aid frum England up to the begin ning of November to reach 9,689 men and 401 officers, of which some 5,000 men and officers be longed to the Chinese expedition. Calcutta is full of tcoops, and the diffi culty is where to quarter them. Accommodation in Calcutta is scarce, and expensive in proportion ; and the troops can be sent up the country only at a rate of about 150 a day, taking the highest rate yet reached. - - The necessity of immediate disembarkation of troops after a long confinement in a ship is, with regard to the health of the men, of such importance that not an hour should be lost in landing the sol diers. The rains (writes one correspondent) are now over, and, the cold season setting in, there is but little to fear from exposure to the sun, provided the men can be kept away from those pestilential nuisances, the native grog shops. It would he advisable to pitch a number of tents on the maidaun, in which the soldiers might be comfortably located. This measure would, in some degree, abate certain com plaints, for which, under present circumstances, there is nu remedy. - - We are sorry to hear that sixteen officers and upwards of 120 seamen of her Majesty's ship Suns parcil are laid up with fever, and that the number is daily increasing. - - With respect to the ships near the Hooghly, it may suffice to mention that the Alma passed oft the Sand Heads and in the river no fewer than thirty-six tran sports under sail or steam, and that it is thought there were in Calcutta fully 12,000 Europeans. The arrivals include some of the earlier departures, such as the 88th and 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade, and some of the corps which, leaving later, were de spatzlied in swift screw steamers. The arrangements for carriage would appear to be improving ; '• 200 men a day will soon be forwarded in bullock-trains and horsed carriages, and the six little fiats now building will, if they succeed, take up 2,000. I say, if they succeed,' for the Government lacking machinery have put locomotive engines into them. If they prove strong enough to stem the tide they will have solved a problem. I am also told that the Government of Bengal is about to give up its scruples about compulsion, and take carriage where it can." NARROW ESCAPE OF SIR C. CAMPBELL. Benares, Oct. 31. The commander-in-chief has come and gone. He arrived to-day at nine a.m., and put up at Colonel Gordon's, where he breakfasted and saw some officers, whence he paid a visit to the Lieutenant• Governor. lie started for Allahabad at one p.m. On this side of Shergotty the commander-in•chiet's party came across, most unexpectedly, a detachment of the fugitive and mutid3ous :32nd, and were very neatly caught by them. Had the garries been five hundred yards further on the road, the whole party would have been cut off to a man, for they were pro• ceeding without an escort of any kind. These gal lant sepoys were seen travelling like gentlemen on elephant.., of which fourteen were counted, and were also escorted by twenty-five sowers, who hovered some time about the carriages. As soon as this cavalcade was perceived, the carriages turned back, and retraced their steps for ten miles till they came up with a bullock-train party. This accounts for the delay in the commander in•chiefs arrival, who otherwise would have been here yesterday. You may imagine how excited people became here, when coupled with the non-arrival of Sir Colin it became known in the afternoon that the electric communica tion was interrupted between this and Shergotty; but little did the good folks think how near their sus picions were to realisation, for it is not to be denied that, to use a common phrase, the commander-in chief was as nearly " nabbed " as possible and all his staff with him. Sir Colin looked uncommonly fresh and well, and intended to be at Cawnpore the day atter tomorrow. A BENARES BANKER EXECUTED.—Byrapersaud, the great banker at Benares, with his jemadar and eight Hurkaras, were tried at Jaunpore, about a fortnight ago, for carrying on treasonable correspondence with the insurgents in Oude, condemned and hanged. We hear that he onred four sacs for his life, but unfor tunately for him did not meet with a benevolent governor.—Calcutta Englishman, Nov. 6. THE NEXT NEWS FROM INDIA.—Both the Calcutta and Bombay mails will be due at Suez this day, and epitomes of their news by telegraph may reach London on Wednesday. Should another special steamer have been sent to Suez for troops, as the Oriehtal was—and this is not iinFrob able—we may have later news at the end of the present week. 1223 ported by the two brigades which I accompanied. Both brigades were established on the canal, at the bridge of the Char Bagh. From this point, the direct road to the Resi dency is a little less than two miles, but it was known to have been cut by trenches, and crossed by palisades, et short intervals, the houses also being all loopholed. Pro gress in this direction was opposed, so the united column pushed and deployed along the narrow road which skirts the left bank of the canal. its advance was not seriously interrupted until it came opposite the King's Palace or Kissurah Bagh, where two guns and a body of mercenary troops were intrenched. From this intrenchment a fire of grape and musketry was poured, under which nothing could live. The artillery and troops had to pass a bridge partially under its influence, but were then shrouded the buildings adjacent to the palace of Fhureed Buksh. Darkness was coming, and it was proposed to halt within the court of this Melia' for the night; but I esteemed it to be of such importance not to leave this beleaguered garrison, knowing that succour was at hand, that I ordered Vie main body of the 78th Highlanders and the Regiment of Ferozepore to advance. The column rushed on with a desperate J. Outran and myself, Lieutenants Hudson and Harhood,* of my staff, and overcoming every obstacle, established itself within the inclosure of the Residency. The than described; but it is not until the next evening that the whole of my troops, guns, tumbrils, and sick and wounded, continually exposed to the attack of the enemy, could be brought step by step within this inclosure and the adjacent palace of Fubreed Buksh. To form a notion of the obstacles overcome, a reference must be made to the events that are known to have oc• curred at Buenos Ayres and Saragossa; our advance was through streets of flat-roofed and loopholed houses, each forming a separate fortress. lam filled with surprise at the success of operations which demanded the efforts of 10,000 good troops; the advantage has cost us dearly. The killed, wounded, and missing—the latter being wounded soldiers, who, I regret to say, have fallen into the hands of a merciless foe—amount to 361, officers and men : Brigadier-General Neill, commanding let Brigade ; Major ... . , commanding Artillery; Lieut.-Colonel Blazely, a volunteer with the force, are killed. Colonel Campbell, commanding 90th Infantry; Lieut.-Col. Tytler, my Deputy-Assistant Quartermaster-General, and Lieu tenant Havelock, my Deputy-Assistant Adjutant-General, are severely, but not dangerously wounded. Sir James Outran received a flesh wound in the arm, in the early part of the action, near Char Bagh, but nothing would subdue his spirit ; and, though faint from loss of blood, he continued to the end of the operation to sit on his horse, which he only dismounted at the gate of the Residency. As he has now assumed the command, I leave to him the narrative of all events subsequent to the 2:)th instant. H. HavxLocx, Brigadier-General. The despatch from General Wilson, detailing the final capture of Delhi, also appears. It is dated " Delhi, Sept. 22nd," and is a continuation of the pre vious despatch of the 16th, announcing the assault on the 11th, and the operations of the 15th and 16th. General Wilson now continues : During the 17th and 18th we continued to take up advanced posts in the face of considerable opposition on the part of the rebels, and not without loss to ourselves, three officers being killed, and a number of men killed and wounded. On the evening of the 19th the Bunt Bastion, which had given us considerable annoyance, was surprised and captured. On the morning cf the 20th our troops pushed on and occupied the Lahore Gate, from which an unopposed ad vance was made on the other bastions and gateways, until the whole of the defences of the city were in our hands. From the time of our first entering the city, an uninter rupted and vigorous fire from our guns and mortars was kept up on the Palace, Jumma Muejid, and other impor tant posts in possession of the rebels; and as we took up our various positions in advance, our light guns and mortars were brought forward and used with effect on the streets and houses in their neighbourhood. The result of this heavy and unceasing bombardment, and of the steady and persevering advance of our troops, has been the evacuation of the palace by the King, the entire desertion of the city by the inhabitants, and the precipitate flight of the rebel troops—who, abandoning their camp property, many of their sick and wounded, and the greater part of their field artillery, have fled in utter disorganisation ; some 4,($X) or 5,000 across the bridge of boats into the Doab, the remainder down the right bank of the Jumna. The gates of the palace having been blown in, it was occupied by our troops at about noon on the :20th, and my head-quarters established in it on the same day. General Wilson then explains, that, owing to the " great diminution of his force by losses in action," added to " the severe sickness prevailing among his troops," he had been unable to organise an active pursuit of the enemy, but that Colonel Greathed, with a small column,+ WAS to proceed in pursuit the ensuing day. General Wilson then announces the capture of the King, who was under arrest in Delhi, • Halgood. Lieut. Wm. Ilargood, of the Ist Madras Fusi liers, and eon of Rear-Admiral Hargood, of Worthing, has been in every action with General Havelock, and since the battle at Busserut Gunge has had the honour of being aide-de-camp to the gallant general—Ed. PRESS. + lat Troop, let Brigade Horse Artillery, 2nd ditto, 3rd ditto, No. 7 Light Field Battery, oth Lancers, let, 2nd, and r.th Pun jaub Cavairy, Hodson's Hor se (220), 2 Companies Punjaub Sappers, her Maje-ity's sth Regiment, her Majesty's 7th ditto, 2nd sad 41,h Pulijsub Infantry. A THE MASSACRE AT CAWNPORE. The following is an extract from the letter of an officer of the Madras Fusiliers : I went the other day to see the house of horrors where the unfortunate women and children were massacred. At the entrance I found a gibbet, and under it the carcase of a wretch who had jest been hanged as a spy. • It is a small brick building built in a square, the rooms opening into a small courtyard in the centre. The place is still strewn with fragments of clothes and lots of shoes. The walls in places are sprinkled with blood, and the mats on the floor appear to have been drenched with it. On carefully examining the walls I found scratched on the plaster behind a door the following—written apparently by the wife of a European soldier, of whom there were several shot up there Countrymen and women, remember the 15th of July, '57. Your wl.,es ani: families are here in misery and at the disposal of savages, who has ravished both young and old, and then killed us. Oh oh! My ohlld my child ! Countrymen, re venge it! I don't think anything would appeal so strongly to the feelings of our countrymen at home at this simple state ment of misery. It is expressed and spelt as above, and seemed to have been scratched with the point of a knife. The walls of the little room where it was written were spattered with blood, and the plaster cut in several places with swords. I went to see the entrenchment where Wheeler defended himself so long. It is a low mudhank about three feet high, surrounding two large buildings that were formerly hospitals. The walls of these are literally riddled by round shot, and the zoofs of both bare fallen in. It seems quite miraculous, when you look at the wretched defence, how men could have held out one day, much less many days, against a host well armed, and provided with big guns and every requisite material. They mast have been arrant cowards—as, indeed, we know they were—for they never dared to come out into the open, but fired from the cover of some half-finished barracks near the intrench ment. OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. Several despatches of importance have been re• ceived by the last Calcutta mail. The following from Sir llenry Havelock, telling the story of his junction with the force under Colonel Inglis, com mandant at Lucknow, will be read with interest. The despatch is dated " Lucknow Residency, 30th Sept.," and was received at Calcutta by telegraph from Cawnpore. By what mesas it was conveyed from Lucknow to Cawnpore is not stated : Major-General Sir James Outran having with charac teristic generosity of feeling declared that the command of the force should remain in my hands, and that he would accompany it as Civil Commissioner only, until a junction could be ettected with the gallant and enduring garrison of this place, I have to request that you will inform his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief that this purpose was effected on the evening of the 25th instant. But I must first refer to antecedent events. I crossed the Sye on the 22nd instant, the bridge at Bunnee not having been broken. On the 23rd I found myself in the presence of the enemy, who had taken a strorg position, his left posted in the inclosure of the Alum tigh, and his centre and right on low heights. The head of my column at first suffered from the fire of his guns, as it was compelled to pass along the Trunk road, between morasses ; but as soon as my regiment could be deployed along his front, and his right enveloped by my left, victory decided for us, and we captured five guns. Sir J. Outran, with his accustomed gallantry, pressed our ad vance close down to the canal; but as the enemy fired with his artillery and with guns from the city, it was not possible to maintain this or a less advanced position for a time, but to become necessary• to throw our tight in the Alum bagh, and restore tour left, and even we were!incessantly cannonaded throughout the twenty four hours. and the cavalry, 1,300 strong, swept round throughlofty cultivation, and the sudden interruption upon our baggage massed in our rear (ate in orig.). The soldiers of the 90th Regiment, forming baggage guard, received the charge with gallantry, and lost some brave officers and men, shooting down, however, 23 of the troopers, and putting the whole body to flight. They were finally driven off by two guns of Captain Olpbert's battery. The troops had been marching three days, under a perfect deluge of rain, irregularly fed, and badly housed in villages ; it was thought necessary to pitch tents, and permit them to halt on the 24th. The assault on the city was deferred until the 25th. On that morning our baggage and tents were deposited in the Alum- Nigh, under an escort, and we advanced. The Ist Brigade, nnder Sir T. Outram's personal leading, drove the enemy from a succession of gardens and walled inclosures, sup- • Note made at Calaitta :—Query— u h beusme ueoessery to throw our right, 40. &a, to retire our WI, etu." ~_,