The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-28 00:00:00

II bursting of shells, and the whistling of bullets ; but now all is still ! Well, after being for eight days in Delhi, and knocked about from one place to an other, we are now stationed near the Cash mere Gate, and have magnificent quarters. The whole of these eight days we have been half starved, and of course it has been a case of no change of clothes day or night, and hardly a wash; but to day day I got leave to come into camp, and I feel quite like myself again. We shall get a heap of prize money now, or battu ; but the medal is what I want, and I hope they will give us one! G. J. H. The following particulars are extracted from an interesting letter forwarded to his father at York, by a young man who was engaged with the 6th Carabmeers in the assault upon Delhi : Delhi, Sept. 27. Delhi at last is in our possession My last letter was dated the 24th of August, and since then we have had arrive sixteen 18-pounders and six 24- pounders, with six 10. inch mortars, to augment our batteries, which were advanced from nearly a mile to under '2OO yards from the walls, and, with the guns we took from them, numbered about sixty playing upon the city at one time. We lost several men in the erection of the batteries from the musketry from off the walls. The finest artillery officer, Captain Fagan, a gentleman who never left the batteries since our first arrival, was shot dead at his gun. On account of the want of artillery, we had to assist at the batteries. We had a sergeant shot dead, and a private wounded severely. I may mention that the Rajah of Bareilly, with about 10,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, and fourteen guns, took up a strong position in our rear, his object being to attack us in that quarter when they attacked us in front from the city; but as soon as we were made acquainted with it a force was despatched to engage him. We came upon him about three in the morning, and, after a most obstinate fight till nine, they were routed with tremendous loss. All their guns, camp, elephants, camels, time lacs of rupees, &c., were captured. Three of the guns were of most beautiful make—all brass, and the King of Delhi's private property. And now for the siege. For three days our batteries played incessantly upon the walls, where a alight breach was made. It was the opinion of a great many that the siege would go on until the walls were levelled with the ground ; hut on the fourth morning every soldier was ordered to the front. The Rifles and the 75th were to enter at the Cashmere Gate ; Bth and 61st by the breach ; Ghoorkas, Coke's Rifles, and Ist and 2nd Europeans to scale the walls. The sepoys, seeing the Rifles and Sappers marching on the gate, instead of allowing us to blow up the gates, saved us the trouble by doing it themselves, and immediately crossed bayonets with our Rifles, and owing to their immense numbers kept their ground until the arrival of the 75th, who poured three deadly volleys into them, and then gave a cheer, when the sepoys turned and ran under cover of two 24-pounders, loaded with grape, in the centre of the street. Our fellows, seeing the flash, dropped on their faces, and, wonderful to state, only four were wounded. That day we held one side of Delhi, the sepoys the other. Oar loss was very severe, but nothing compared with that of the enemy. General Nicholson (the " Lion of the Punjauh") was wounded while scaling the walls, and has since died of his wounds. Captain Rosser, of my troop, was shot in the head. The ball remains there, and he lies in a very pre carious condition. A great many officers were knocked over. During the day we took 111 guns and the remaining two magazines. One of them had as much shot and shell as would last an army of 51,000 for three years, and guns of enormous calibre-68-pounders, hut all without limbers. After the sepoys %ere beaten back, street after street, the greater part went into the fort, where the King's palace is. For three days we bombarded it, throwing as many as nine shells a minute ; but so prodigious is its strength that very little mischief was done, our fellows not venturing in at the gate, on account of it being mined, and four l 0 inch guns staring them in the face. At last a breach was made, end in a short time the fort, palace, and the whole of Delhi was in our possession, after seven days hard fight ing, and, I am sorry to add, a severe loss on our side. There are several officers and soldiers here who served in the Crimea, and declare that Sebastopol sufferings were below their sufferings here; and when the Indian summer monsoons and the repeated attacks fro:u the sepoys in thousands are considered, it is not to be wondered at. Before Sir H. Barnard's death our average loss was from 101) to 300 each attack. Since General Wilson took com mand (our Meerut brigadier), which is about Nix weeks ago, we have not lost 500 up to the assault As for a description of Delhi, if I except London, England, Ireland, or Scotland cannot produce its equal. The writer refers to the palace, and says : The old King is in it, a prisoner. Two of his sons are shot. The one who assumed the sovereignty of India has gone with the rebels towards Lucknow. Although their loss was tremendous, it is supposed their force gone away was 12,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, with a few guns, and an enormous treasury. General Havelock will talk to them, no doubt. We have sent a moveable column of the 74th, Bth, 61st, and the 2nd Regiment of Sikhs, with two troops of horse artillery, in pursuit. For a description of the riches of Delhi my pen is in adequate. Cashmere shawls, inlaid with gold, bodices covered with gold lace, skirts of dresses, watches, bars of gold, beds of silk and down, such as no nobleman's house in England could produce—you would see Sikhs carrying out of Delhi the first day as if they were almost nothing. A shawl which in England would fetch 1001. they were THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 28,1857. selling for four rupees, and you may depend our fellows were not behind them lt is suppoLod the Rifles will go to England with upwards of 1,000/. each, though General Wilson has issued an order that the prizes shall be all put together and divided. Most of our men are worth upwards of 100 rupees Another writer gives us some of the details con nected with the capture of the Princes. The letter is dated Dugshaie, a place about forty miles from Delhi, the 29th of September last : A few days ago Captain Hodgson (of ours) went out and captured the King, and brought him in a prisoner. He is at present confined in his own palace. A few days later be went out again, and came up with the King's sons and grandson. He had only 100 native horsemen of his own regiment with him, and the enemy about 10,000, 3,000 of whom were fully armed sepoys. Hodgson cum it was of no use attacking them, so he sent an emissary to tell the Princes that the game was up with them, and that they had better surrender, which they did after some time, and came up to Hodgson, who immediately surrounded the carriage with his men. He sent for their arms, and, after hesita ting some time, these also were given up, with seven elephants and lots of stores. On reaching the gaol Hodg son ordered the Princes out of the vehicle ; they, imagining all was right for themselves, began (native•like) to talk, and say they hoped there might be an inquiry into their conduct. Hodgson said " cheeproks " (be quiet), and ordered them to take off all their fine clothes. When this was done he said, " Now get in again," and ordered the driver to proceed. He then beckoned to one of his men, and asked for a carbine, and with his own hand shot each and all of the three Princes. He then took their bodies into the city, and laid them out for inspection in front of the Kotswallie, where these wretches had laid out their victims during the massacre. There are lace upon lace of treasure and prize property in the city, and if the city itself was put up for ransom It would fetch upwards of fifty lace. An Engineer offic3r engaged in the: siege declares it as his opinion that if we had attempted to storm the city before, not a man would have escaped to tell the tale, and he grounds this opinion first on the weakness of our forces, and secondly on the strength of the rebels' position. Alluding to the proposed assault on the 12th June, he writes : M 3 own (and, I think, the general) conviction is that our force, so contemptibly small as it then was, would have been completely lost in such an immense city, and, unless the enemy bad been moat completely panic-stricken, would have had little chance of holding any temporary advantage that we might have obtained in the first rush. I could enumerate instances of the same kind without num ber, but it would try your patience. I think few can ponder on all that has happened and imagine our work in India is done, and that Providence has altogether for saken us. He then describes the progress of our bombard ment : We opened our trenches on the 7th of September, and the way in which we accomplished this was one of the most wonderful parts of the siege. Breaking ground so close to the walls was a bold manoeuvre, which few circumstances would justify, and one which we fully expected would cost us many valuable lives. Judge, then, of our surprise to find scarcely any notice whatever taken of our proceedings. It is the more remarkable as there seemed to be no attempt at secrecy on our part, and we ourselves could hear the enemy's sentries on the ramparts. Our working party was an excessively large one, and had the enemy taken common precautions ( for they could not have been ignorant of our presence) they must have inflicted very heavy losses, if, indeed, they had not entirely stopped our works. Vigilant, however, as we have always found them, this first night God seemed to have blinded their eyes to all sense of danger ; fur, with the exception of one shower of grape and two or three round shot directed at us, which injured no one, they fired away at our batteries on the ridge as usual. In the morning they acted very differently, for they com menced, and through the day kept up, a very hot fire ; too late, however, for we had managed to obtain pretty good shelter by that time, and our first battery on the right was not only finished, but armed and hard at work breaching. You would think that after the experience of our first night they would have allowed us little peace in breaking fresh ground nearer the walls ; however, even then there was not very much tire, and it was only on the third night that they seemed to awake to a sense of their danger ; and from that time they kept up a pretty steady fire of all sorts, includ ing musketry, and we certainly lost some men. You may fancy that the engineers had little time to themselves. I was not in bed for four nights, and, as you may imagine, pretty well done up. There was only one battery (only 150 or 200 yards from the walls) to be finished, and it was the excitement alone that kept us awake. I bad a party of her Majesty's 61st and Bth Regiments under me, filling sandbags. The fire was very hot, and I was anxious to get my men under cover in some pits, where the earth was softer to dig. I was leading them to the pit, when, the night being dark, I fell into one that I had not seen, and sprained my leg and ankle so severely that I was obliged to be taken to camp in a dhoolie. There I lay on my back till the day of the assault. I don't think that anybody in camp knew for certain the time of the assault till within two hours of the time. I was in my tent, away from the mess, and therefore had no opportunity of hearing anything about it till the rattle of musketry told me that something was doing. Of course, stopping in bed was out of the question, and as my charger was hors de combat, I had no choice but to mount my little pony Donald. I had my doubts about my new charger, a very pretty little beast, and perfect in every respect except courage, being one of the most determined shyers that I have ever seen. How ever, I had no choice, so I mounted, and in due course of 1151 time I found myself at the Cashmere Gate. Our columns had entered, and one had even penetrated as far as the Bank, but, being unable to withstand the murderous fire, was compelled to retreat. It was with the greatest difficulty that I could keep my seat, for on reaching the branch roads outside the Cashmere Gate the ballets and shot of all descriptions were dying about like hail, and one which struck close to the hoofs of my pony frightened him so that he became quite unmanageable. However, I got him through the gate, and a fearful sight it was that mat my eyes. A portion of our troops had escaladed the bastion walls close to the gate; others had scrambled up two large breaches in the walls and bastion near the Treasury. The remainder had entered at the gate itself, which had been blown open by one of our officers. The latter was really the hazardous duty of the day, and was moat gallantly performed, though in broad daylight. The explosion party consisted of Lieutenants Home and Salkeld, of our corps, a few sappers and a bugler of her Majesty's 52nd. On their nearing the gate they found it slightly open, with • number of muskets protruding at the opening. They were received with a volley, which killed and wounded a number. Still, however, they advanced, and fixed their powder bags on to the gate. Sergeant Carmichael, of the Sappers, tried to light the portfire attached to the bags, but was sho dead in the attempt. After him Sergeant Harness, of thp Sappers, tried, but fell, pierced with three bullets. AMe Sergeant Harness, Salkeld tried, but fell into the shot in the leg. which is broken, and in the arm, which has been amputated. Sergeant Smith, of the Sappers, tried next, and he and Home between them happily succeeded without a wound. Seeing the portfire well a-light the whole party jumped into the ditch, and the enemy, little dreaming of what had been done, continued firing till the explosion took place, so you ma:, fancy what effect it took. Twenty of the mutineers strewed the road inside the gate, not one of whom would it have been possible to recognise, and this was the first sight that met my eyes at the gate. Little wonder that Donald refused to move ; however, finally ke did, and got as far as the centre of the main guard, beyond which nothing would urge him. It was per fect agony keeping my seat, and I would hare given worlds to dismount—but walking was out of the question; it was anything but an agreeable fix to be in. I felt how perfectly useless I was, and being the only mounted man there in the open space, fully accounted for the number of ballets whistling past my ears. There was no help for it, so I had to make my way back to camp as I best could, fully convinced of my own folly. You may imagine I had done neither leg nor ankle much good by the trip, and I had not many opportunities of seeing the remainder of the operations. We progressed slowly after this for two days, but having obtained Possession of the magazine con taining about 130 guns there could no longer be much doubt as to the result. The enemy, who bad hitherto so atontly resisted us, was losing heart, though he bad suc ceeded in beating us back with loss and kept us at bay at two or three points. Daily and nightly large numbers continued to leave the city till the 20th, when we found ourselves in perfect possession and the entire city eva cuated. Immediately on receiving news of the evacuation, I started for the palace. You can have no conception of the scene of confusion—Riflemen, Ghoorkaa, Sikhs, and Punjaubees quarrelling over their plunder, and such plunder to quarrel about ! Old counterpanes, dirty blankets, tin and copper pots and pens, sepoys' red coats, baskets, papers, packets of tinsel, bottles of rose-water and otto of roses lying here, there, and everywhere, and the whole place in a state of squalor and wretchedness passing all description. On turning into the gardens in front of Douglas's stables, I found myself alone. I cannot tell you what a scene of desolation presented itself to my eyes. The garden had been an encamping-ground of the sepoys, and everything bore witness to its having been deserted in hot haste. The tents were still standing, but it seemed as if everybody had taken his armful out of the boxes, and, without caring for what might drop, had made the best of his way out of the place. The stillness, too, after the noise and riot that 1 had just quitted, was really appalling, and I stood at the foot of the stairs stupefied as if with a heated atmosphere and unable to move. I was roused by hearing three cheers from the apartments above me. . . . We have captured the King, his two sons and grandson— the three last (among whom was Mirza Mogul Bey) were most deservedly shot before they were brought into the city, where their bodies were exposed in the Chandney Chouk. A report dated September 17, from Colonel Baird Smith to Major-Geueral Wilson, which has not yet appeared in the papers, brings to our notice the real facts of that desperate duty of blowing up the Cash mere Gate : Par. 13. The gallantry with which the explosion party, under Lieutenants Home and Salkeld, performed the desperate duty of blowing up the Cashmere Gate, in broad daylight, will, I feel sure, be held to justify me in making special mention of it. The party was composed, in addi tion to the two officers named, of the following:—Sergeants John Smith and A. B. Carmichael, and Corporal Bur gess, Sappers and Miners ; Bugler Hawthorne, her Majesty's 52nd, fourteen native sappers and miners, tea Punjaub ditto, musters covered by the fire of her Majesty's 60th Rifles. The party advanced at the double towards the Cashmere Gate. Lieutenant Home, with Sergeants Smith and Carmichael, and Havildar Maher, all the sappers leading and carrying the powder bags, followed by Lieutenant Salkeld, Corporal Burgess, and a portion of the remainder of the party. The advanced party reached the gateway unhurt, and found that part of the drawbridge had been destroyed; but passing across the precarious footway supplied by the remaining beams, they proceeded to lodge their powder bags against the gate. The wicket was open, and through it the enemy kept up a heavy fire upon them. Sergeant Carmichael was killed while laying his powder .: s t'~