The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-19 00:00:00

T H the villain'F heart failed him ; be preferred the open field and chances of escape to being shut up in a fortress. Bhitoor was deserted. The following message from General Havelock, dated 20th July, tells the result : Nana Sahib's followers appear to be deserting him. He bas Bed from Bhitoor, which was occupied yesterday with. out resistance. Thirteen guns were found in the place. His palace is in flames. General Neill has joined me with a strong reinforcement of British soldiers. Lucknow quite sate for the present. Our troops fired and blew up the palace, and *started in pursuit. The next day General Havelock telegraphed : I sin free to cross the Ganges. Nana Sahib's force at Bhitoor is entirely dispersed. We have brought from the place sixteen guns and a number of anirn its, set fire to his palace, and blown up his powder magazine. A portion of lay troops and five guns are already in position at the head of the road to Lucknow. The whole army is full of hope that we shall soon be united on the left bank. On the 22nd of July, General Neill, who had pushed forward with all speed from Allahabad with a reinforcement of 227 men Alth Regim.int, reached Cawnpore, and on the 23rd the whole British force, with its guns, crossed the Ganges into Oude. " It was ascertained," says Mr. Tucker's official bulletin from Benares, that the garrison then was safe, and that the enemy's attacks had languished in consequence of their want of ammunition." The enemy between Lucknow and Cawnpore is estimated at 12,000 men, with forty-two guns. - - - - - A letter from Cawnpore, dated July 19, states a singular circumstance, but to which credit can scarcely be attached. We are disposed to regard it as a mere ruse of the Nana to escape pursuit ; Intelligence einie in late last night that the Bhitoor Usjah had destroyed himself in despair, that the sepoys had all tied towards Delhi, and that Bhitoor was evacuated. This morning the news is confirmed as actually true, and a detached force of the Ist Madras Fusilier -3, Sikhs, and two guns, are gone out to take possession of the place. The whole force is now rested and in high spirits, feels that its hard marching and fighting have not been for nothing, and four days hence I hope we shall be in Luck now triumphant. The accounts men give of the state of the cantonments are fearful. They have visited the house where our women were murdered. That house and well are described by men of not weak nerves as the most fearful, sickening sight they ever saw. Four women are saved, Mrs. Ureenway, wife of a merchant, and three half castes. - - - General Havelock pushed on, and on the 29th came up with the rebels, strongly intrencbed in the village of Oonao. The following substance of a despe.tch from the general to the commanLler•in-chief in Bengal explains subsequent operations, which ended in the defeat of the enemy on two successive occasions : Camp Bupeerul-Gunge, July 30. Arrive ]at Ooneo 29th instant. The town protected by a swamp, not fordable on its flank ; houses loophooled, and defended by fifteen guns. I attacked and captured it, with all the enemy's guns. The enemy were ailed by a portion of Nana's force, commanded by JupaSitigh. Halted four hours, and then pushed on to the town, which is also sun rounded by water, and was defended by tour guns. The road to its entrance was destroyed, and the gate cannonaded. I assaulted and carried it with its guns Enemy's loss heavy; my own severe, being eighty-eight killed and wounded. Private Cavanagh, 04th Regiment. would have been recommended for the Victoria Cross, but lie was cut to pieces while setting a brilliant example. I desire his relations may be pensioned. Madras Fusiliers greatly distinguished tbetuselves, Lieutenant Dangertield being first over the barricade; Lieutenant Bogle, 78th Highlanders, was severely wounded while leading the way into a loopholed house ; recommended to the notice of his Royal Highness the General Commanding in-Chief. Colonel Tytler, who was scarcely able to sit his horse, set an example to all of activity and daring. Lieutenant Have loek's horse was shot under him. Lieutenant Seton, .Madras Fusiliers, acting A.D.C., severely wounded. An entire field battery of arms captured. Withont cavalry I c moot secure horses or equipments. My volunteer horse Improve The latest accounts by letter fr.nn General Have lock's camp, duel 30th July, the day after the fight, state that the enemy vrno about two miles in front. Our force was at Bapeer•ul-Gunge, sixteen miles from Cawnpnre, and fondly elpected to reach Luck now on the 31st ultimo : I trust (observes a correspondent) he may have no more such serious encmnters as the two last, else he may arrive at Lucknow only to join the garrison, without a chance of returning. You will now understand the serious results which may ensue from the want of reinforcements. Should any accident disable Havelock's force, we have nothing for it but to yield up the country for a time. I will not indulge, however, in the fears of a disaster, but rather trust in the tried valour of our men, who have done prodigies agaiust overwhelming numbers. A correspondent of the Daily News adds an ominous sentence in a postscript, at the last moment of the mail closing E PRESS, SEPTEMBER 19,1857 From what I have just heard Havelock seems to have fallen back upon the Ganges, it is supposed to secure all the guns he has captured, and which he cannot take on with him. The enemy, moreover, are frightfully strong, sill, of course, the Diaspora revolt will add to their numbers. This rumour is, unhappily, confirmed. Before leaving the subject, the following particulars of the massacre at Cawnpora, and the scenes enacted previouseto that melancholy affair, may be interesting to our readers. They are given by one, on the authority of the Calcutta Englishman, who was present throughout the whole affair : He reports that some eight days before the mutiny broke out, or say eight days previous to the sth ult., General Sir Hugh Wheeler, seeing the disaffected spirit of the troops, applied to Nana Sahib of Bhitoor for a guard for the protection of the treasury. This request was promptly complied with, and the Nana sent two guns and two hundred Nujeebs, armed with matchlocks, and these were placed at the collectorate over the treasure. A day or two before this Sir Hugh Wheeler had sent ele- phants to remove that treasure, amounting to about seven laws, to the intrenchment ; but the sepoys would not allow this to be done, saying to the collector, who had told them that he was apprehensive of the treasure being looted by the budmashes and mutineers from the other stations, that if there were twice the amount they would guard it from danger. On the sth ult., about three in the morning, the sepoys and sowers commenced burning their lines and shouting, and proceeded towards Nawabgunge, where the treasure was, leaving one regiment to prevent the Europeans from going to the relief of the collector. By-and-by, the treasure having been packed on elephants and carts, this other regiment joined the others, sunlit was then about mid-day, and the mutineers set off to the westward in the direction of Kullianpore and towards Delhi, accompanied by the two hundred Nujeebs, with the two guns of the Nana Salta), leaving the inhabitants relieved as it were by their departure ; and up to that time there had not been either destruction of property or loss of life. In the morning of the following day, about eight o'clock, the mutineers, headed by the Nana, with six hundred of his followers and four guns (having, it seems, previously made up their minds to destroy all the Christians, whether European or native), returned to Cawnpore and halted about two miles to the west of the intrenchment, planted standards and took up a position, with loud beating of drums. Immediately after, about fifty sowers were de spatched to the cantonments to slay all the Europeans, and fifty Rowers to the town where the poorer people lived, to kill all the native converts and clerks. During this time the Nana Sahib hoisted two standards, one to the honour of Mahommeil and the other of Hunatnan ; to the former some 2,000 Mahotnedans repaired, to the latter but a few Hindoos, none from the city, but some of the budmashes. The main body of the insurgents first attacked the Nawab's palace, and, having blown open the gate with their cannon, they entered the place and gutted it, and took the Nawab prisoner, the Nana Sahib being under the impression that the Nawab had concealed some Europeans. They then proceeded to the intrenchments, and from two o'clock commenced the attack with cannon, at first with two of the guns and on the following day with six. It appears that the Europeans within the intrenchi ments were not well supplied with ammunition, as it is supposed they did not expect an assault with cannon, and thus were only able to reply with one gun to twenty of the enemy. For seventeen days continuously the muti neers used every now and then to make an assault with four or five thousand men front all quarters, with the view of carrying the intrenchment by storm, but were invariably repulsed with heavy loss. thy this time the Nana's fcrces had increased, with the addition of budniashes and muti neers from other stations, to about 12,0110 men. On the 21st or 2-2nd ult. Sir Hugh Wheeler sunk under the wounds which he had received, and the garrison, three or four days after his death, being short both of provisions and ammunition, and reduced in number by several casual ties, hoisted a flag cf truce. The Nana Sahib then stopped the assault, and sent to inquire what was meant by the flag. Answer was returned by the Europeans to the effect that they had neither food nor ammunition, and they pro posed to give up the country to him on his allowing them to depart. To this the Nana consented, and for two days supplied them with food, and in that time prepared boats for their departure. At the end of this time the Nana gave the Europeans his word in writing, and he, his officers. and head people confirmed it with an oath. The Europeans then gave ua . their arms, and the tree• sure iu the intrenchments, amounting to about three lacy, and wire conveyed in Hindostanee gharees and hospital dholees, most of the ladies being in the latter, under an escort of sowers to the ghat, where they em barked in seventeen boats out of nineteen that had been provided, with the exception of some thirty-two ladies, with children. As soon as the boats had pushed off from the ghat, the boatmen jumped overboard and swam on shore, and then the mutineers opened a fire on the boats from a masked battery of eight guns, which had been pre viously erected for the purpose. All the boats were sunk, and the people on board killed, with the exception of one host that had passed down, and some twenty Euro peans who had managed to swim to the shore. This boat was pursued by five hundred Nujeebs, with two guns, who came up with it on the second day, and sunk the boat and destroyed every one on board, off a place called Gossheenka Seerajpore. The twenty and odd Europeans who SWIM on shore at Cawnpore were blown away from guns in the course of two or three days, some each day. 911 The thirty-two ladies and children who were left be bind were conveyed by the Nana into a pucka•house called the Snbhadhur, and kept in custody by the• Nana Sahib's people, but without being insulted. One Portuguese woman, the daughter of a bugler, was made captive by a trooper of the 2ud Cavalry, and car ried to his house when the mutiny first broke out ; but, when he was absent, she took his sword and killed his wife and two children and then herself. With respect to Delhi, putting aside the report of our retreat, and acting only upon the latest authentic intelligence, we find that our position was such as to cause no little apprehension. We were literally besieged. The sorties of the rebels were powerful and gratuitous attacks upon our works, not move ments executed in defence of their own. In three of these attacks, on the 9th, 15th, and 18th of July, we had lost 500 men killed and wounded, Brigadier Chamberlayne being among the latter. The severe battle on the 9th was only briefly paragraphed by last mail. We learn now that the fight was well contested; and that though our loss was heavy, 181 killed and wounded, of which an unusual proportion were officers, we inflicted upon the rebels a loss of killed only estimated at 1,000 men. The first onset of the rebel cavalry headlong into our camp was made in the grey of the morning upon a detachment of artillery under Major Tombs and Lieutenant Hills. The major was the first to discover their approach, and had but just time to order the men to their guns, when the rebel horse charged sword in band. Both officers gallantly dashed forward at the same time to bleak the brunt of the charge. A hand. to•hand conflict was maintained, in which Major Tombs killed two men and saved Lieutenant Hills from a cut which would have proved fatal to him. This little episode consumed but a few minutes of time—enough, however, to spread the alarm ; so that, when the rebel horse, continuing their rush, passed through Tombs' detachment, they were encountered by Captain Fagan (Artillery), who hastily gathered together a few recruits, twenty five in number, followed them, and succeeded in killing fifteen, amongst them the sirdar, or leader, richly dressed in shawls and embroidery. Whilst this was proceeding, the enemy attacked our positions in force from front, flank, and rear. The Subzee Mundee was again the scene of close and hard.con tested fighting, and a most desperate eflirt was made to take the Hindoo Rao, where upwards of ninety sepoys were killed in the attempt to dislodge a small body of Sikhs. The rebels fought at considerable advantage in point of numbers, but with matches substituted for the percussion lock. Of subsequent events the following letter gives a vivid representation. The battle of the 15th was very serious, and our loss especially severe : Camp near Delhi, July 26. We are still remaining in the position we took up on the afternoon of the Bth of last month after fighting the battle of Battle Semi; it is a very strong one. We lie about two miles from Delhi. We are encamped on the old parade ground of the native regiments, perfectly safe from everything but their shells, wnich fall into our camp almost every evening, without doing any great harm. We are lying on the defensive till we recd ive reinforce ments, only tiring from our batteries when the enemy pro voke us by opening theirs or coming out at the gates. They are continually getting in reinforcements. It is not known certainly whether the troops from Neemuch have yet reached Delhi. Our spies state that they are losing a good irony by desertion. Their money is failing, and it is generally believed their stock of percussion caps is nearly exhausted, and they cannot make new ones. They have four separate commanders in•chief, and have shown iu every attack a want of concentration, which has helped us much in driving them back. We were not troubled after the affair of the 9th till the 13th. The day before they fired a salute of twenty•one guns for the sack of Agra and the reverse we had expe• rienced there. They vowed to carry our batteries next day, and came out in great force to storm the pickets under Hindoo Rao's house and in the Subzee Mundee. They brought two guns to bear upon our right. Our men, under good cover, kept them back for several hours, only losing twelve men, when Brigadier Chamberlayne, the adjutant general, ordered out our infantry and two troops of home artillery into the Subzee Mundee. The infantry went in to clear the thickets and gardens in front of Hindoo Rao's hill and the Subzee M undee. As they came upon the enemy they gave a tremendous cheer and dashed on. The Delhi wallahs turned their backs and ran in crowds to the gates. The artillery galloped up and poured a shower of grape into them. Our force was within 20:1 yards of the walls. Such a shower of grape and musketry fell upon us that we were compelled to fall back. Chamberlayne had his arm shattered below the shoulder. Our loss was as heavy as 200 men killed and wounded, including thirteen officers. We retired in good order. The enemy did not follow us far. Our men are getting very discontented with this kind of work. They are ready to carry any position, however strong, the enemy must be driven from. But to carry a strong position a dozen times only to see it abandoned and reoccupied next morning is what no soldiers will do with out losing heart. Since General Wilson bas assumed command we have remained more strictly on the defensive. We are strength. citing our position every day, and demolishing the houses, and clearing the thickets in the Subzee.3lundee.