The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-05 00:00:00

862 the camp at about twelve p.m. One of our men who had been left behind in the dark reported that after our depar ture the enemy came down to the canal and began blazing away front the opposite side with horse artillery ; but for• tunately the birds had flown. It was lucky that we demo• halted these bridges when we did, as next day the enemy attacked us in force, but was prevented from getting to our rear as usual.—Private On the 9th the right rear of our position, the favourite place, was again attacked, but," says the Times correspondent, " with the never-failing result." As this was the most serious and successful attack the rebels have ever yet mad 3 upon our lines, we subjoin a more detailed account than the discreet correspondent of the Times thinks it necessary to give : • On the morning of that day 300 horsemen of the mutineer force ran headlong into our line, burst through the outlying pickets, and penetrated into the camp, being taken by a party of the lith Carahineers for our own 9th Irregulars. The rapidity and noise of their rush frightened the horses of our regulars, which galloped back and gave the alarm. Before the rebels were encountered they had passed through the camp and tired a volley into the tents. They halted in our rear on the binks of the canal, and made a stand there. They were taken in flank by some artillery under Major Tombs, and cavalry of the oth and mounted guards, from the Subzee Mnndee road, who nearly massacred them all. Major Tombs with his own hand shot one and cut down two. The evident intention of this desperate rush was to divert our attention from a general attack which now commenced from a force of (1,000 rebel infantry ad vancing rapidly on our pickets. Full details of this affair have not been given, but the engagement was severe, and the loss on both sides considerable. The mutineers hurried into the houses and inclosures, as usual, and our men got at them in several places with the bayonet, kil!ing in one enclosure upwards of 150, and in a second about a hundred more. We had killed and wounded of her Majesty's Hth Foot, 40 men ; 2nd Bengal Fusiliers, 3 killed and IS wounded ; 00th Rifles, 14 killed and wounded. The Sikhs also suffered. The rebels lost upwards of WO men, their retreat being again impeded by our artillery, which made lanes in their ranks. Our advanced pickets on the right have been thrown forward to a mosque on the crest of a hill opposite the Lahore gate, and we have established ourselves there in a post from which the enemy had long annoyed us.—D. News cor. Our loss on that day was most severe, and amounted to 212 killed and wounded. Upon the 14th another desperate assault took place, but of which we have no details. Before leaving Delhi, we must call attention to the proclamation of the rebels which has been distri buted over Bengal : To all Hindoos and Mussulmans, Citizens and Servants of Hindostan, the Officers of the Army now at Delhi and Meerut send Greeting. It is well known that in these days all the English have entertained these evil designs—first, to destroy the religion of the whole Hindostanee army, and then to make the people Christians by compulsion. Therefore we, solely on account of our religion, have combined with tne people, and have not spared alive one infidel, and have re•estab• fished the Delhi dynasty on these terms, and thus act in obedience to orders and receive double pay. Hundreds of guns and a large amount of treasure have fallen into our hands ; therefore it is fitting that whoever of the soldiers and people dislike turning Christians should unite with one heart and act courageously, not leaving the seed of these infidels remaining. For any quantity of supplies delivered to the army the owners are to take the receipt of the officers, and they will receive double payment from the Imperial Government. Whoever shall in these timer exhibit cowardice, or credulously believe the promises of those impostors the English, shall very shortly be put to shame for such a deed ; and, rubbing the hands of sorrow, shall receive for their fidelity the reward the ruler of Luck. now got. It is further necessary that all Hindoos and Mussulmans unite in this struggle, and, following the instructions of some respectable people, keep themselves secure, so that good order may be maintained, the poorer classes kept contented, and they themselves be exalted to rank and dignity; also that all, 93 far as it is possible, oopy this proclamation and despatch it everywhere, that all true Hindoos and Mussuln►ans may be alive and watch. ful, and fix it in some conspicuous place ( but prudently to avoid detection), and strike a blow with a sword before giving circulation to it. The first pay of the soldiers of Delhi will be 30r. per month for a trooper and 10r. for a footman. Nearly 100,000 men are ready, and there are thirteen flags of the English regiments and about fourteen standards from different parts now raised aloft for our religion, for God, and the conqueror, and it is the intention of Cawnpore to root out this seed of the Dev►l. This is what we of the army here wish. CAWNPORE AND GENERAL HAVELOCK. Next in importance to Delhi must be reckoned Cawnpore and Lucknow. Of the surrender of Cawn pore no details from the spot have yet appeared, but from the escape of one person, Ensign Brown, who has 'reached Calcutta, we shall in all probability by next mail obtain full details. Meanwhile, the Calcutta correspondent of a daily paper writes the following account of THE PRE S S, SEPTEMBER 5,1857. the 16th of May. The garrison of that station, the Euro pean regiment having been transferred to Lucknow, consisted of three native infantry regiments, the Ist, 53rd, and . 1 3th, one native cavalry corps (the 2nd), and about fifty European artillerymen. The station is built on a dead level, possesses no fort or place of refuge, and is in every respect ill adapted for defence. When, therefore, the news of the Meerut revolt reached Cawnpore, and it became evident that that example would shortly be followed by the native garrison there, Sir Hugh Wheeler at once turned his attention towards the provision of a fortified position, in which, at all events, he might await the arrival of sue emirs. He pitched upon the hospital barrack, in the centre of 'the grand parade, for the purpose. He intrenched it, armed it with all the guns of the battery, placed in it the women belonging to the depot of her Majesty's 32nd Foot, the ladies of the sta ion and others, and himself remained prepared to act on the first sound of alarm as circumstances might dictate. From the 15th of May to the sth of June the feelings of the sepoys were manifested in an unmis takeable manner. The men of the 2nd Light Cavalry sent their families to their homes. Pune/myth, or native meet• ings in the lines, were of nightly occurrence, and some of the men of the Ist Native Infantry showed by their insolent gestures that the example of Meerut and Delhi had not been lost upon them. Had the measure been possible, Sir Hugh Wheeler would have disarmed them at once, but with fifty Europeans to back him he was well aware that such a proceeding would only precipitate a revolt. He therefore carefully bided his time. In order, however, to be quite ready for any emergency, he begged Sir Henry Lawrence, who had about 000 Europeans to control the whole province of Oude, to send him one company of her Majesty's 32nd to remain at Cawnpore until reinforcements, then on their way, should reach him. Sir Henry sent him seventy men—all that he was able to spare, as he himself was in a very critical position. Matters went on in the same unsatisfactory way—con stant alarms and yet no actual crisis, until the end of May, when about eighty Europeans, belonging partly to the 84th Foot, partly to the Madras Fusiliers, reached Cawnpore. The seventy men of the 32nd were then returned to Lucknow. On the 31st letters were written to Calcutta to state that an outbreak was imminent, that it Hugh Wheeler had no means at his disposal to put it down, that there were from 400 to 500 women and non-combatants at the station, and to defend these not more than 150 fighting men. The utmost he could do would be to defend them all in the intrenched hospital, which he hnd victualled for three weeks, until reinforcements could arrive from Cal cutta. The Ist, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of June passed away ; not one day without alarm ; and yet there was no outbreak. On the morning of the sth an officer, the only one who, from the first, had pooh•pooh'd the idea of an insurrection, wrote to a friend in Calcutta, ridiculing the precautions that had been made. In the afternoon of the same day ne wrote to the same friend inclosll•ng his will, and stating that the crisis had arrived or would be upon them that evening. He, poor fellow, was one of its first victims. The particulars of the insurrection have not yet been told. We only know that many officers were killed on their way to the intrenched camp, that one of the first acts of the mutiaeers was to seize the treasure, about 160,0001. ; to open the gaols, and let loose the prisoners. They then gutted and set fire to the houses, murdered every Christian they came across, and finally proceeded to attack the in trenched barracks. Here, however, General Wheeler had an advantage. The rebels had no guns. He had several, though of small calibre, and with their assistance he would have been able to keep any amount of insurgents armed only with old Brown Bess at bay till the end of time. It is at this point of the narrative that Dhoondoopunt Nenajee, quasi Rajah of Bhitoor, appears upon the scene. This fiend in human shape was the adopted son of the late Peishwa. On the demiae of that functionary he applied to the Government of India, and subsequently to the Court of Directors, for the continuation to him of the enormous pension assigned to the deceased. By both parties he was refused, but Lord Dalhousie allowed him to keep six guns at his castellated palace at Bliitoor. These guns turned the scale against our unhappy countrymen at Cawnpore. This man, generally styled the Nana Sahib, was well known to the residents of Cawnpore, and in prosperous times was always glad, or appeared glad, to receive them at his castle, and to accompany them on their shooting ex' cursions. He is a middle•aged man, darkeomplexioned, and but for a dishonest expression would have been con• sidered a goodlooking man. The writer has seen him and shot in his company. The moment, however, that he heard of the mutiny at Meerut, and had felt the pulse of the troops at Cawnpore, his mind was nride up. We had refused him his " rights "; he determined to gain them himself or perish in the attempt. His first hostile act was committed on the persons of fugitive ladies and children from Futteyghur and elsewhere, about a hundred in number. Ilhitoor is only six miles above Cawnpore, and as they were passing the former place en route to the latter he 'topped their boats, brought them on shore, and remorselessly shot every one. He then tied their bodies together and threw them into the river. This was Dhoon doopunt Nenajee's declaration of war against the British Government. This occurred early in June. The revolt broke out at Cawnpore on the sth. No sooner had intimation of it reached the Nana than he took his guns and joined the rebels, assuming the command in person. Guns were procured also from other quarters of large calibre, and with these he commenced pounding Wheeler's intrenchment, to which, with his small calibre guns, he could not adequately reply. Notwithstanding this, and that in the first fortnight he lost about one•third of nis force, Wheeler's heart never failed him. Sally after sally did he make, and always drove the enemy before him. Had not there been so great a crowd of ladies under his charge he could with ease have cut his way to Allahabad. At 100), on the Uth of June, they had but two days' supply of food left; they had no water; their ammunition was at its lowest ebb. From being confined, 000 in number, in a barrack originally designed to contain about 200, and from the bodies ►ying unburied all around them, disease in a had form had come among them, and was deci mating their ranks. But the heart of the gallant Wheeler rose with the crisis. On the 211th he was determined to make one last effort—one grand assault on the enemy's po sition, and to take from them the necessary supplies. lie came out with his half-starved band, charged the enemy, and drove them from their position; but he had no cavalry. The enemy had been joined by a second regiment from Oude, and the two coming upon his flanks just as he drove the infantry before him—coming with a proportion of twelve to one, compelled him to fight his way back. He himself was mortally wounded, and lost many men in this action. Its result and the death of Wheeler the next day damped the hopes of the garrison. They had neither food, water, nor ammunition; to remain there was to die, In this emergency they sent Mr. Stacy, the deputy col. lector, on the 27th of June, to treat with Nana Sahib. He was received by that victorious leader with great civility. The following most favourable conditions were agreed upon :—The garrison (including women, children, and camp followers) were to be permitted to take their arms, property, and a lac and a half of rupees with them into country boats provided for their reception, in which they were to proceed to Allahabad. The ingenuity of hell never before devised a blacker scheme of treachery than that deliberately planned by the Nana and shared in by all the rebels at Cawnpore, those rebels being sepoys who for years had eaten our salt. Our poor, miserable, half-starved countrymen were conducted faithfully enough to the boats —officers, men, women, and children—and pushed off into the stream in full confidence in the good faith of these devils; but they had scarcely done so when, on a signal given by the Nana himself, guns were opened upon them from the bank, and out of the forty boats they embarked in some were sunk, others set on fire, and the rest pushed over to the Oude side, where cavalry in waiting for them, in their eagerness to slay the Kafirs (infidels), rode their horses belly deep into the river to meet the boats and cut and hack at our unhappy countrymen and women, who vainly tried to escape. One boat, however, actually did manage to run the terrible gauntlet successfully, and got ten miles down the river, but they were pursued, overtaken, captured, and brought back in triumph to the barracks, where the men were all shot, and the women reserved for a worse fate. Meanwhile, while unknown to the authorities at Calcutta these fearful atrocities were being perpetrated at Cawnpore, every effort was being made to send Euro. peen troops up the country. As fast as they came in from Madras, Ceylon, Burmah, the Isle of France, Persia, and other places, they were packed into steamers and dak garrees (post carriages), and sent oft'. But other stations too had mutinied. l3enares had been almost, Alla habad entirely, in the hands of the rebels, and it was neces sary to settle those two places, the latter being especially ne cessary as the base of future operations, before any move ment could be made upon Cawnpore. All this was done as quickly as possible. Colonel Neile came up to Allahabad, and with the assistance of the hangman's rope soon succeeded in restoring order at the station. As soon as possible, he sent off a force of 400 Europeans and 6410 Sikhs, under Major Renaud, in the direction of Cawnpore, and on the 10th of July General Havelock, with 1,200 Europeans, followed. I shall touch very briefly on their subsequent operations, as they will be fully described by your other correspondents. On the 12th General Have lock joined Renaud, on the 13th surprised and defeated the rebels at Futteypore, on the Pith, again, at a nuddee twenty miles from Cawnpore, and on the 16th at Cawn pore itself, after a very obstinately contested engagement, after which the Nana, protected by his cavalry, retreated upon Bhitoor, which is of difficult access and strongly fortified. To complete the account of the catastrophe of the unfortunate remnants of the Cawnpore garrison, I may here state that the commissioner of the district re ported to the Government that their bodies were found in a well in the Assembly-rooms compound, bearing upon them marks of the most indecent and inhuman treatment it is possible to conceive. The following extracts from the letter of an officer whose position enables him to have the best information, addressed to his wife in England, con tains, perhaps, the most authentic list of those who have perished. We still believe, however, that many returned as murdered will be found to have escaped : - - July 1. A letter from Sir H. Lawrence, dated the 20th of Jane, with news from Cawnpore, gives the following : " Sir M. Jackson, two sisters, Mrs. Dorin, Captain Hearsey, and Captain Orr, are safe. The Cawnpore casual ties are Brigadier Jack, Colonel Williams, Major Prout, Sir G. Parker, Lieutenant Quin (sen.), Major Lindsay, and many ladies ; among the rest, Mrs. Wiggens died from heat and exposure. Messrs. Halliday, Reynolds, Poole, Smith, Redrnont, Supple, Eckford, Demster, Jervis, Chalwin, Hilleradon, and many others, killed. Lieutenant Ira: 48th, killed ; most of the Seetapore party saved. Colonel Birch, the Christians. Gowan, and Snells, killed." This finishes Sir H. Lawrence's letter. The Gwalior Contingent have risen to a man. It ap- pears Brigadier. General Ilavelock, with a force, had pushed on from Allahabad as far as as Futteynore, sixty miles on, and exactly halfway between Allahabad and Cawnpme. He had expected to be opposed by rebels, but found no enemy, so he sent on men to ascertain the truth of a report of the fall of Cawnpore. They returned, said it was true, that General Wheeler had been wounded in the leg on Wednesday, the 2nd, and on the following day was mortally wounded ; that most of the officers had been killed in the narrow intrencbmeut which they held. Seeing all further THE MASSACRE AT CAWNPORE. The first accounts of the mutiny at Meerut and of the eeeptiou of the rebels et Delhi reached Cawnpore about