The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

1078 possible to move still more forward, and take the adverse battery in flank. This was amordingly done, and then we had our revenge, for they could only bring one gun to bear on us, while we, with our four, enfiladed their whole position It is true that at this time we were within 501) yards of the enemy's cavalry, who, ►f they had had one atom of pluck, could have ch.irged an:l taken our guns with the most perfect ease ; but a handful of Fusiliers, with their Enflelds, lying down on our right, and the small body of volunteer horse drawn up in our rear, made us feel per. fectly secure, and we went on pounding the battery without paying the slightest attend ►n to the horsemen. Presently an artillery-waggon was seen creeping out of the battery. That was instantly knocked over, and soon after a lucky shrapnel silenced the one gun which was firing direct at us. Our lire grew hotter the►n ever, and at last a swarm of men was seen rushing buck in confusion from the trenches. Hereupon a cheer ran along the whole of our advancing lines. The Nth quickened their pace before breaking into one of their magnificent charges, and the Fusiliers on our right dashed forward with a yell, in loose skirmishing order, at the left flank of the large grove of trees which ran along the rear of the enemy's position, and which was full of men. The 78th went straight at the battery, which still re mained crowded with men, the gunners working their two remaining guns to the last, and only bolting when our men were at the foot of the slope, carrying off with them one gun, the team of which had escaped the shrapnel of our artillery. After bayoneting all they could catch, the 78th turned the two captured guns on the enemy. Some artillerymen were into the battery directly after, and we had the intense satisfaction of giving the flying foe three rounds from each of their own guns. . . The pos►tion was carried at all points about the same time, the enemy flying in headlong haste. On the lett, having the advantage of the road, they managed to carry off their guns, as we had no cavalry to catch them, and our men were far too much exhausted with their previous run to follow up. Having contented themselves, there fore, with driving the enemy clean through and away from the village, the force halted for a short time to breathe, then marched back to Una°, where they cooked food, and an in the cool of the evening back to Mungul warns. Next morning, the kith, the troops moved down to the river, and—so excellent were the engineer's ar rangements—were all crossed over and housed on the Cawnpore side by nightfall of the same day. Three days afterwards, the weary, worn out, foot sore soldiers were compelled to advance on Bhitoor, re-occupied by the enemy in force. The action was short, sharp, and decisive ; the enemy were beaten out and bayoneted at all points, but our troops were too much exhausted to follow up their success. The writer concludes his admirable graphic letter as follows : In this action the ill effect of marching Englishmen in 'lndia by day instead of by night was particularly manifest. The men came into action so fagged with the heavy road and hot sun that ere half the fight was over they were utterly exhausted, and could not du half the execution they would otherwise have done had they been fresher. Were the system of the old Indian generals adopted, of marching during the night, halting when within a few miles of the place till dawn, and then going on again in the grey of the miming, every man would be fresh and ready for any amount of work that might be before him. Curious to relate, the enemy on this occasion seemed to be quite as much exhausted as our own men. Some of them actually threw themselves down from exhaustion, and suffered themselves to be bayoneted rather than stir. The cause of this was discovered after the action, from one of our Thannadars who had been made prisoner and escaped during the confusion of the flight. The day previous was a Hindoo fast, which had been strictly kept by all the sepoys, who therefore had to fight upon empty stomachs. " Had we," the man said, " been able to follow up the fugitives for another four miles we might have killed almost the whole of them;" for he "saw the sepoys throw themselves down on the ground by scores, utterly unable from exhaustion to stir another step." The troops remained that day bivouacked in and around the old Residency, and next morning marched back to Cawnpore, where it is supposed they will go into camp and rest awhile. Of this, however, 1 am not as vet certain, since I am at present away from thence, having been despatched the next morning with a couple of guns on board a steamer, in company with a detachment of infantry, to proceed down the river, and destroy any boats that might be collected on the Oude side of the Ganges. One thing, however, is certain—the troops want rest. It is now about forty days since the column left Allahabad, during which time it has fought an action on an average every fourth day, captured seventy-one guns, and lost up wards of a fourth of its numbers. It was really pitiable to see the regiments marching back from Illiitoor. The 7Sth left Allahahed over 30(1 strong : it is now reduced to less than a hundred fighting men. The filth, that started a few months ago for Persia a thousand strong, is now re duced to hardly the size of two companies; and the rest in proportion. Meantime, report says that the Gwalior force, fully equipped, and with thirty-one guns, are march ing upon Cawnpore. Truly, the sooner the English rein forcements come the better. From the nature of these operaficns we can esti mate pretty nearly the extent of resistance General Havelock has met with on his last advance. Whether be will be able to overcome, as this writer expresses it, the obstinate resistance of " a people " with a column of some 1,800 men, the next mail in all pro bability will tell us. The rebels are numerous : it Tll E PRESS, NovEmptit 7, 1857. is evident that, what with rebels and village match lockinen, they swarm like locusts on the land, and, what is more to th point, they are concentrated upon a direct line of country through which we must pass to reach Lucknow. We must hope for the best. Out troops have given us solid proof of their heroism and their fortitude. Insensible of fatigue, un daunted by difficulty, and superior to danger, we may rely upon it that every effort human nature is capable of sustaining will be made by these men to achieve success. Meanwhile, it may not be unin teresting to see what was the position of affairs in Lucknow up to the 23rd of July, about the latest date of a lengthened letter from the Residency. The writer, in the garrison at that date, after describing the earlier movements of the revolutionary party in Lucknow upon receipt of the outbreak at Meerut., details the various measures with which we are now familiar taken by Sir Heary Lawrence to secure the possession of Lucknow, down to his final retreat to the Residency. The writer then goes on to say : The rebels, after taking possession of the city, opened trenches round the Residency, and kept up a continuous fire of musketry and guns. At times combined attacks of all mutinous regiments and rabble troops were male upon the Residency, but were heroically met by the Europeans, and repulssd with slaughter. The shells have made great havoc among the rascals, and struck their hearts with terror. The number of the rebels was about 124,000 men. Among them there were :-14 regiments of mutinous sepoys; 3 ressalahs of Irregular Horse; 4 troops of Local Horse Artillery ; the remainder all rabble troops. These are imperfectly armed, ill•paid, and ill provisioned. The men are no doubt courageous. The most conspicuous among the rebels were:—Rajah tioorbuccus, with about '20,000 followers; Nawab Ally with about 4,000 followers; and the Pathans of Malzahatl, about 3,000 in number. The emirs or Alahometlan nobles, begums, and w ealthy mahajuns, supplied the rebels with provisions. Killing and plundering the Christians and Ilaboos was the order of the day. The bloody acts continued for some days. Plundering extended over the commercial class of men also. But this was not all : the authority of the deposed King was restored : On the 30th of June, one of the young sons of the ex- King, named 13idis Kadur lluhadoor, sat upon the gaddee as a Minister to the King of Delhi. Tom Tom was beat to this purport. His naib or deputy was named a Shirrufeod dowda, formerly a Minister in late Nuserood• dowlah's time. He held the reins of the Government, re-enlisted the disbanded regiments of \Vajid Shah, invited the petty rajahs and great zemindars to join him with all their followers, issued orders to zemindars and villagers to kill all Europeans and liaboos passing through their villages, and held out alluring promises for the aunihila• tion of the Europeans and their dependants. Having thus delineated the general features of the insurrection pervading 0 ode, particularly Lucknow, in the present, the writer records its principal causes, gleaned from "reliable sources ": Since the annexation of that country by Lord Dalhousie, dark conspiracies had been fostered with secrecy and dili gence by the dethroned princes, wealthy and great zemin dare, and the sycophant nobles and dismissed courtiers. Secret and seditious correspondence among them was always carried on. Attempts were at times made to excite the people by means of fanatic mooloovies, or disguised emissaries ; and at times they were promptly smothered, but never finally extinguished by the local authorities. Inquiries were sometimes made to discover the miscreants, but the native agency through Whiell they were conducted, being interested in the country, and bribed fur misrepre sentation, the object was always defeated. The little though tronslesome affair of the late Fuzul Ally had a kindred connection with this conspiracy. He was secretly supplied with men and money by the conspirators to per. petrate atrocities on the north of the provinces. Not-oily informed the British officers of the whereabouts of this desperado : not even a single peasant, although all of them had a thorough knowledge of his movements. A day or two before the horrible tragedy of the life of the late Mr. Boileau, deputy commissioner of Barraitch, deliberately perpetrated by Fuzul Ally, the rajah of that place, to show his innocence, went into Lnckuow to pay his respects to the Bora Sahib. This rascal was at the bottom of the murder; and had supplied men and money to Fuzul Ally for the purpose. The outwardly, well-clad, smooth and smiling faced, satanic-minded and mendacious rascals, had no opportu nity for organising and disciplining corps to achieve their intended end ; they therefore tampered with the feelings of the local troops, who formed the major portion of the British army on the land, and who were the subjects and once the paid servants of the ex-King. Enticing pro mises were held out to them and reinforcements to a large extent offered; thus the local troops revolted. The grievances of the conspirators are the following:— The King has, for no cogent reason, been deprived of his kingdom. The princes, princesses, begums, nobles, courtiers, zemindars, sepoys, Sc, &c., have lost their halcyon days with the kingdom. These grievances they weighed against the benefits of the British Government, and found all very ponderous; the name of civilisation, high-sounding and empty; poverty and famine staring them in the face; and money, the root of all happiness, they had none. All this is really serious. The re-establishment of the authority of the King, the hostility of the people, and their detestation of our rule, and the weight of justice which they have on their side in the matter of the annexation, promise us a severe contest for the reconquest of this kingdom. If the rebels of Delhi and Gwalior concentrate in Oude, the position of Havelock must become perilous. The state of the country about Cawnpore is exhi bited in the following extract from a letter written by a gentleman travelling with Sir James Outram's force to Cawnpore -- • - Maharajpore, Sept. 14. (Posted at Cawnpore Sept. 15.) I have reached my old factory. The compound is ono mass of jungle, with every here and time a broken door or a half-burnt timber or manufacturing implement ; all the buildings burnt to the ground, and of the house there are only left three rooms that I built. Sissoopore, where Claude was, has also been burnt to the ground. Nudiuff ghtir (Nudjuffghur was the property of Mr. William Vin cent) has not been burnt, but everything, to the doors, has been carried away ; the remaining two factories have been protected by the zemindars of the place. Yesterdiy, in broad daylight, a band of 500 robbers, headed by their zemindar, came to plunder a village, the zemindar of which came to the camp for help, which, however, waa not given him ; and to-day, in talking of it with the people here, they told rue that this very man keeps 800 match. lock men expressly to plunder his neighbours. I have heard of another band near one of the factories of this concern. The Thauadar of Nudjuffghur, who came to see me, sass that his authority is only partially acknowledged hero and there, and set at defiance in some villages. The collections all over the country are at a dead stand. The following letter is from the superintending surgeon at Saugor : Saugor Fort, Sept. 21. We are still shut up in this wretched and unwholesome little tbrt, and no prospect of succour being sent us till January or February No regular attack has been made on this fort as yet; we have guns and ammu nition in abundance, and when we hear of the rebels nearing us we send out a party against them, and they generally, and most fortunately for us, run away. Our last encounter was a m,)re serious one. The enemy stood our attack and fought bravely—killed one and wounded two officers, and about forty sepoya killed and wounded. We were obliged to retire, giving them the •ictory over us. This occurred on the !Sth inst., about thirteen miles distant, and we are hourly expecting them to try their luck with us at Saugor. They will find us ready for them if they do come. God grant we may be successful in beating them off. For six weeks we got no letters or papers of any de scription or from any quarter ; now they are coming in gradually, but most irregularly. We are thankful for what we get, and that our lives have been spared. The country is overrun with mutineers ; and every one we see we sus pect of having some intention of destroying us. 'Tis a dreadful state to be in. When we learn that the rebels have betaken themselves to some distance, we get out for a drive ; and my poor wife and I have been so seriously ill that we have gone to our house for the day for change of air, and to save us from dying in this wretched hole, which I had one time made up my mind to. lam still very weak, and reduced to a skeleton, yet I hope for the best. We have had some twenty deaths in the fort of men, women, and children; and many are now dangerously ill. I need not say how glad we are to receive letters from you all. I have now seen thirt3-four years of unbroken service in India. I notice your entreaties for my returning home—at present nothing but a sick certificate can accomplish this. A few days since eleven fugitives joined us who had escaped from stations in the Gwalior territory—one lady, four officers, a sergeant and his wife, and some children—in all eleven. They have been in confinement a long time, with no servants, and only one suit of clothes each. Poor things ! they looked starved, and had frequently been taken out to be murdered, but the rebel rajah in whose custody they were relented, and at length gave them up to us, in the hope of saving his own life, which he has forfeited, it ever laid hold of. Peace may be restored in India in one or two years, but not without an overwhelming European force. We have in India many disabled old officers, who are a disgrace to the service, and hinder us greatly by their obstinacy. From a lengthened account of the Futtehghur mutiny drawn up by one of the survivors, now at Cawnpore, we extract the following descriptive pas sages of the escape of the survivors of this terrible scene. The party, consisting of some 100 persons in all, were holding the fort against the attacks of the rebels. In the first week in July the last day of their gallant defence arrived The enemy had now brought a gun to bear upon the bungalow containing the ladies and children. The shots generally passed over. but two or three struck the house. Another gun they got to bear against the gate, and con trived to break a hinge and knocked several holes through it, but little harm was done, as we had piled up the arch way with timber, which effectually stopped the shots. Two of our guns were soon after disabled. The enemy then commenced another mine close to the first. The determination thus shown by them, as also the loss of three of our best men, disheartened the garrison, already worn out by fatigue and watching. I t was also certain that, if the second mine was completed and fired, the enemy would attack us by both breaches, which we could not possibly defend ; our position became desperate ; we began to look to the boats as our only mode of escape, the river having risen considerably by the rains. After due consideration, it was determined to evacuate the fort. No