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

11,5% bag, Havildar Mahor being at the same time wounded. The powder being laid, the advanced party slipped down into the ditch to allow the firing party, under Lieutenant Salkeld, to perform its duty. While endeavouring to fire the charge Lieutenant Salkeld was shot through the arm and leg, and handed over the slow match to Corporal Bur gess, who fell mortally wounded just as he had successfully accomplished the onerous duty. Havildar Tilluh Singh, of the Sikhs, was wounded, and Ramloll, sepoy of the same corps, was killed during this part of the operation. The demolition being most successful, Lieutenant Home, happily not wounded, caused the bugler to sound the regi mental call of the 52nd, as the signal for the advancing columns. Fearing that amid the noise of the assault the sounds might not be heard, he had the call repeated three time, when the troops advanced and carried the gateway with complete success. I feel certain that a simple state ment of this devoted and glorious deed will suffice to stamp it as one of the noblest on record in military history. The perfect success contributed most materially to the brilliant result of the day, and Lieutenants Home and Salkeld, with their gallant subordinate Europeans and natives, will, I doubt not, receive the rewards which valour before the enemy so distinguished as theirs has entitled them to. An officer of the 01st, after describing the assault and the desperate nature of the street fighting, writes : Thus, at last, with the help of the Almighty, we have taken this blackguard place, where so many fearful deeds were committed. The King has been caught, and his two sons slain ; also his grandson, Aboo Bukkur. Their bodies. naked and full of bullet holes, were cast in the Chantlni Chouk (the swell 13egent•street of Delhi), before the police•station, and were visited by hundreds, myself included. Two of these accursed princes violated our women, and then had them cut up in pieces. They are, I'll be hound, in a warmer place than India just now, and one too where punkas and taffies are not available. I was on guard over the King and his wives and concubines on the 24th and 25tli, and was obliged to be much on the alert to prevent rescue or attempts at escape. l was ordered to shoot him if things came to the last extremity. Yesterday I handed him over to a guard of 60th Rifles, being precious glad to be relieved of so responsible a position. We daily find hidden in the houses sepoys who were unable to escape from sickness or wounds; these are all put to death on the spot; on the 24th I caught a fine tall sower or trooper of some light cavalry regiment, dragged him out into the street and shot him dead. No mercy can be shown to them. We don't forget, and won't forget, the massacres of women and children, and we kill every sepoy we catch. The city is quite deserted, and all the citizens have fled. It is curious to see a large place like this without a soul in it. We have plundered all the shops, and all the valuables are being collected and sold for prize. Our vengeance cannot be appeased, for we found several of our men who had been merely wounded on the 14th in the assault, and overlooked by us, lying dead minus their heads, and fearfully gashed with sabre cuts; and so we spare no one. Every sepoy we catch, " Shoot him" is the word. No news of re reached Delhi : from England had When all is over, the English regiments will, I suppose, make their appearance. The country is still in a fearful state, and Oude and Rohilcund will have to be overrun with troops before we can hope to tranquillise it. Another officer says that, as soon as our men got inside the walls, they found "several stores of beer, champagne, and brandy, placed there by Pandy (he knowing too well the character of the British sol dier), and some of the European troops became a drunken rabble." General Nicholson received his death-wound while cheering on his men to charge a gun laid in the streets. " Every street," says the writer, " had one or two pieces which poured grape into our advancing columns, and could only be captured by the bayonet " : On the 21st I rode down to see the palace. The wall and entrance are the finest part ; the interior is dirty, filthy, and in great disorder, Tandy having revelled in its cool archways. The hall of justice and the King's throne arc entirely built of white marble; the latter is inlaid with stones and mosaics. I went all over the state apartments and the harem. The latter is a curious place, and had a remarkable appearance; its floor covered with guitars, bangles, ite., and redolent of sandal-wood. The fair daughters of Cashmere had their swing in the centre of the loom. They hid left in a great hurry; dresses, silks, slippers, were lying on all sides. On leaving the palace I met a dhoolie, surrounded by some cavalry and a few natives on foot. Jts inmate was a thin faced, anxious•looking old man. This was the new King of Hindostan, the descendant of the Great Moguls, entering his palace in the hands of his enemies. He was captured some distance from the city. Being eighty-five years of age, his life is to be spared. Ile will be kept a close prisoner for life. The sick and wounded in our camp outside Delhi amount to about 4,000. The camp swarms with the starving townspeople. THE OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. A mass of despatches from the different general officers in command of forces in the field in India have been published this week. They include operations before Delhi in June, under Generals Barnard, Reed, and Wilson ; the despatch from General Nicholson detailing the battle of Nujuffghur ; PRESS, NOVEMBER 28, 1857. despatches from General Van Cortlandt, and de- spatches from Sir Henry Havelock and Colonel Eyre. Much of their interest is anticipated by the electric telegraph, but still, if we wish really to ascer tain the nature of the warfare in which we are now engaged in India, these official despatches will not prove uninteresting. Besides,it is always interesting to read the account given by the principal actor in the events related. Passing over the earlier opera tions before Delhi, and the attacks of the rebels upon our position, we arrive at the battle of Nujuffghur, which affords us a curious illustration of the axiom that may be received regarding Indian warfare—viz., that while in the open 100 natives will fly before ten Europeans, under cover ten natives will defy 100 Europeans. The battle of Nujuffghur, it will be remembered, took place under the following circum stances :—The rebels in Delhi having received in telligence of the advance of our Beige train, deter mined to cut it off; with this view a powerful force left Delhi for the village of Baprowla, in the rear of our position. General Nicholson was at once de tached, with some 2,000 men and sixteen guns, to open the war. He found the rebels in a strong position in front of the town of Nujuffghur, and after a hasty reconnaissance at once attacked them. After a few rounds of artillery, he formed up and carried the entire position at the point of' the bayonet, with " scarcely any numerical loss, captured thirteen guns, and forced the enemy to a full retreat ": The enemy's guns were now all in our possession, and I supposed the conflict at an end, when it was reported to me that a few men had concealed themselves in the little village of Nuglee, which was at this time a few hundred yards in rear of our line. He immediately sent orders to Lieutenant Lumsden, who was nearly abreast of the village, to drive them out; but, though few in number, " they bad remained so long that our troops were on all sides of them ; and seeing no line of retreat open, they fought with extreme desperation." Lieutenant Lumsden was killed, and the Punjaub infantry becoming discom posed, the 61st Queen's Regiment was pushed up to their support, and then, only after a desperate resis tance, and the loss to us of many men and two gallant officers, were these " few men " driven out from under cover and the village captured. General Van Cortlandt describes his various operations with mush minuteness of detail, espe cially useful as exhibiting to us the difference be tween the matchlockmen and the rebel sepoy. The " matchlockmen," who abound in Oude and form a sort of free-lance corumanity in every village throughout the northern and north-west portions of Inda, are very courageous and desperate fighters. Here is an instance of their tenacity when attacked by General Van Cortlandt at Khyracka:— The embankments of both villages were taken possession of at once; the enemy, though fighting bravely, were driven back into the villages ; they fought from house to house, and fired from every available cover, and in many instances our men had to remove the roofs of the houses to enable them to get at those of the enemy who were firing on us from the interior. Some of the houses, too, were fired to drive them out. Twine the men from the left village made a rush into that on the right, and were fired into with canister, from the artillery under Lieut. Walcott, with good effect, several being killed. There was a good deal of hand to-hand hard fighting, but after the lapse of about two hours from the first shot being fired, we had gained possession of both portions of the village. It is this village and street work which is the real battle in India, and shows the sagacity of " the Duke" when he pronounced as his opinion upon Indian warfare, that, if it could be avoided, you should never attack a native army, except when on the march. General Havelock's despatches are singularly plain. A simple relation of facts is all that he gives, and indeed they do not require the colouring of vivid description or eloquent effort. He does justice to the courage and obstinacy of the rebels at Busheerut punge, Onao, and Bithoor. At Bithoor, which it will be remembered he attacked on his first retreat to Cawnpore on the 17th of August, he says the position of the enemy was "one of the strongest" he had ever seen, but the attack was short, sharp, and decisive : The plain, densely covered with thicket and flanked by villages, has two streams flowing through it, not fordable by troops of any arm, and only to be crossed by two narrow bridges, the furthest of which was protected by an intrench ment armed with artillery. The road takes a turn after passing the second bridge, which protects the defenders from direct fire, and behind are the narrow streets and brick houses of Ilithoor. I must do the mutineers the justice to pronounce that they fought obstinately; other wise they could not for a whole hour have held their own, even with such advantages of ground, against my powerful artillery fire. The streams prevented my turning them, and my troops were received, in assaulting the position, by a heavy rifle and musketry fire from the rifle and bat talion companies engaged ; but, after a severe struggle, the enemy were driven back, their guns captured, and infantry chased off the field, in full retreat towards Seoraj pore. Had I possessed cavalry, not u rebel or mutineer could have reached that place alive; as it is, they shall not long remain there unmolested. The skill of the rebels, too, in the use of their arms is remarkable as a test of their efficiency at least, and as a proof of good training. The Arrah misfortune is so well known that we need enter into no detailed account of this disaster. Major-General Lloyd expresses the following opinion as to the causes of that lamentable affair:— - - lat. To the men commencing the land journey without previously taking food, which evidently much impaired their efficiency during the harassing circumstances in which they were placed. 2nd. From the late commanding officer of the de tachment, when in the immediate vicinity of the mutt. veers, and with the knowledge that his movements were watched, pushing on in the dark, against the strong representation of the second in command and others of the party, and thus allowing himself to be entrapped in an ambuscade, the effects of which quite disheartened and demoralised the troops, and, combined with their physical exhaustion, led to a complete rout, defying the endea vours of the officers to restore order in progress back to the ghat. Several other despatches relating to details of minor importance are also published. As to the general conclusions to be drawn from these de spatches, while they exhibit the fatal effects a want of cavalry has upon the operations of a general, they show unmistakeably our superimity in artillery and infantry over the rebels. But, at the same time, they point out to us that our enemy is not to be despised—that he is active—that, in certain situa tions, he displays the highest and most determined courage—and, more than either, he is numerous„ and abundantly supplied with arms, ammunition and stores. OUR INDIAN ARMY. TO THE EDITOR O 1 "THE PRESS." Sir,—There appears to be a strong feeling on the part of mans persons that, after what has occurred and is occurring in India, the natives on the Bengal side are no longer to be trusted, and that hereafter our soldiers must be Europeans. As a substitute for the native army, " Indophilus " would introduce a native police throughout the country; but, as the Times very justly observes, " Such a body of men must of course receive some organisation, and of course, also, considering the expeditions on which they will often be despatched, they must carry arms, &c. (to This, however, being admitted, we zon fess we do not discover where the great change would be eff-cted, except in name, &a. . .It appears to us they will be sepoys in all but title." There can be no doubt of the truth of the remark of the Times, and it may be added that they would not be so efficient as the sepoys, as there would be few officers to control them. The number of European troops in India was cer tainly not sufficient for such a crisis as is now (we may hope) passing away. But we cannot hold India without the aid of native troops. There are duties to be performed which must be done by native soldiers. If none of the natives on the Bengal side of India are to be trusted, where will Europeans of any rank who reside in Bengal obtain domestic servants, who have every facility for poiaonina or in some other way murdering their masters ? A gentle man generally keeps six, eight, or more servants; and when things settle down, and something like peace is restored, such servants will be employed, Mussul mans and Hindoos, without any apprehension on the part of the master of being murdered. Whenever a reorganisation of the Bengal army, or that of the other Presidencies, takes place, it should be a settled rule that no native shall ever be an artilleryman ; neither should any native be permitted to enter the laboratories, or be instructed in pre paring the composition for fusees, percussion caps, portfires, carcases, &c., in making or cutting fusees, or in preparing any ordnance ammunition. Such duties are always performed under cover. Europeans may therefore safely be employed without detriment to their health. The Europeans who serve the guns, should ride on the horses that drag the carriage. Syces (native grooms) always accompany the horses. Thera should be a detail of gun Lascars attached to every troop and company, to clean the guns and carriages, to assist in packing and unpacking ammunition, also to perform other duties from which it is desirable to relieve the European soldier. These Lascars should be armed with a sword in cantonments, but in the field each man should have a pistol. Natives should Lot be instructed in mining; they know too much of it already. The Sappers and Miners should all be Europeans. The greater part of the cavalry have mutinied, and it is advocated that henceforth there shall not be any native cavalry. There are certain duties in this branch of the service which must be taken by natives, such as rear-guards, detach ed duties, the duty of sentry in exposed places : there are other