The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-21 00:00:00

THE PRE S S, NOVEMBER 21, 1857. and natives; the regiments in camp being her Majesty's Oth Lancers, her Majesty's Gth Dragoon Guards, Guide Cavalry, Hodgson's Horse, and detachments of the Ist, 2al, and 6th Punjaub Cavalry. Her Majesty's tith Foot ( part of), 62nd Foot, 00 Rifles (pair of), 01st Foot, 76th Foot, Ist and 2nd Bengal Fusi liers, Sirmoor and Kumaon Battalions (Glioorkas), 4th Sikh Infantry, Guide Infantry, Ist, 2nd, and 4th Regiments Punjaub Infantry. Four troops of horse artillery (Tombs', Turner's, Re mington's, and Rennie's), two light field batteries ',Scott's and Bourchier's), and some companies of foot artillery attached to the siege guns, which numbered about forty heavy guns and howitzers, tea heavy and twelve light mortars. The means of the Engineers were very restricted, not in officers but in trained men, of whom there were only about 120 sappers. Some companies of Muzbee Sikhs had, how. ever, been tepidly raised and partially trained ; and a body of coolies bad also been collected, who worked remarkably well ; the park had been at work for some time iu collect ing material, and 10,000 faseines, 10,000 gabions, and 100,000 sandbags were ready for future operations ; field magazines, scaling-ladders, and spare platforms hail also been duly prepared, and great credit is due to Lieutenant Brownlow, of the Engineers, in charge or the park, whose aztirity and intelligence contributed not a little to the eventual success of our operations. The north face being the side to be attacked, it was resolved to hold the right in check as far as possible, and to push the main attack on the left first, as the river would completely protect our flank as we advanced ; second, as there was better cover on that side ; third, as after the assault the troops would not find themselves immediately in narrow streets, but in comparatively open ground. The front to be attacked consisted of the 31oree, Cash mere, and Water Bastions, with the curtain walls connect ing them. These bastions had been greatly altered and improved by our own engineers many years ago, and pre sented regular faces and flanks of masonry with rroperly cut embrasures ; the height of the wall was twenty-four feet above the ground level, of which, however, eight feet was a mere parapet three feet thick, the remainder being about four times that thickness; outside the wall was a very wide beam, and then a ditch sixteen feet deep and twenty feet wide at the bottom, escarp and connterscarp steep, the lattter unrevetted, and the former revetted with stone and earth eight feet in height. A good sloping glacis covered the lower ten feet of the wall from all attempts of distant batteries. On the evening of the 7th of September No. 1 advanced battery, in two portions, was traced about 7tH) yards from the Moree Bastion, the right portion for five 18-pounders, and one s•ineh howitzer was to silence the Moree and prevent its interfering with the attack on the left. The left portion for four 24 pounders was intended to hold the Cashmere Bastion partially in check. The working parties were very little disturbed daring the night ; the covering parties in front kept the musketry at a distance, end except three wall-aimed showers of grape thrown from the Moree, which knocked over some workmen, we received no further an noyance. By the morning the two portions of the battery were finished and armed, though not ready to fire until nearly sunrise ; a trench was also male connecting the two portions and extending a little to the right and left, so as to give communication with a wide and deep ravine, which, extending very nearly up to our own lett attack, formed a sort of first parallel, and gave good cover to the guard of the trenches, the coolies, tte. For some time we were well pounded from the Moree with round shot and grape, but as our guns in the new battery got gradually into play the enemy's tire grew less and less, and was at length completely overpowered. This battery became known as timid's, being worked by that otlicer with great tiluct till the end of the siege. On the evening of the Mth and 9th No. 2 battery was traced and commenced. To our surprise we hail been allowed to seize this advanced position at Ludlow Castle, within 000 yards of the city, without even a fight for it, on the previous day. In fact, there is little doubt the enemy still thought the attack was to be on the right, where all the fighting bad hitherto been, and where all our old bat teries were located. Ludlow Castle and the Koodsee Bagh were now occupied by strong detachments, and formed our chief supports to the lea attack. During the 9th, a sharp fire of musketry, shot, and shells was opened on these Positions by the enemy from the jungle in front, and from Cashmere and Water iiniioll9, and the Selimgurh, but no great damage was done. During the nights of the 9th and 10th No. 2 battery was completed and partially armed, but not yet unmasked. It was in two portions —one, immediately in front of Ludlow Castle, for nine 21 - pounders, to open a breach in the cur tain between the Cashmere and Water Bastions imme diately to the left of the former, and to knock off the parapet to the right and left for some distance, so as to give no cover to musketry ; the other portion, some 200 pods to the right, consisting of seven S-inch howitzers and two 18-pounders, was to aid the first portion, and work with it for the same end. No. :1 battery was also commenced on the left, and No. .1 battery, for ten heavy mortars, com• pleteil in the Koodsee Bagb, but not yet unmasked. Major Tombs was in charge of this battery ; the light mortars, %mkt'. Captain Blunt, were afterwards worked from the rear of the Customhouse. _ _ During the nights of the 10th and 11th No. 2 battery was strengthened. armed, and unmasked, and No. 3 bat tery completed. This last was made in the boldest manner within 180 yards of the Water Bastion, behind a small ruined house in the Custom-house compound, and under inch a fire of musketry as few batteries have ever been exposed to ; it was for six 18 pounders, which were to open a second breach in the Water Bastion, and was worked by 111:ijor Scott. The enemy also went to work to•nigbt. and made an advanced trench parallel to our left attack, and about 351) yards from it, from which at daybreak they 'pelted a very hot fire of musketry, which was maintained throughout the i,st of the siege; they had previously gut some light guns and one heavy gun out into the open on our right, which caused considerable annoyance by their enfilade fire. On the 11th our batteries ornerl fire, a salvo from the nine 24-pounders opening the ball, and showing by the way it brought down the wall in huge fragments what effect it might be expected to produce after a few hours. The Cash mere Bastion attempted to reply, but was quickly silenced, and both portions of No. 2 went to work in fine style knocking the bastion and adjacent curtains to pieces Majors Campbell and Kaye, Captains Johnson and Gray, had charge of Nu. 2. No. 3, however, did not commence fire till the following day, when the full power of our artillery was shown, and a continuous roar of fifty guns and mortars, pouring shot and shell on the devoted city, warned the enemy that his and our time had at length come. Night awl day, until the morning of the 11th, was this overwhelming fire continued. But the enemy did not let us have it all our own way. Though unable to work a gun from any of the three bastions that were so fiercely assailed, they yet stuck to their guns in the open, which partially enfiladed our position ; they got a gun to bear from a hole broken open in the long curtain wall ; they sent rockets from one of their martello towers, and they maintained a perfect storm of musketry from their ad• vanced trench and from the city walls. On the night of the 13th the Engineers stole down and examined the two breaches new: the Cashmere and Water Bastions, and, both bring reported practicable, orders for the assault were at once issued, to take place at daybreak the following morning. The arrangements for the storming were as follows:- Ist column—B igadier-General Nicholson. H.M. 75th Regiment, Ist Bengal Fusiliers, and 2nd Funjaub In:entry—To storm the breach near the Cash mere Bastion, and escalade the face of the bastions. Engineer officers attached—Lieutenants Medley, Lang, and Bingham. 2nd column—Brigadier Jones, C.B. H.M. Bth Regiment, H.J. 61st Regiment, and 4th Sikh Infantry—To s.orrn the breach in the Water Bastion. Engineer officers attached—Lieutenants Greathed, Ho— venden, and Pemberton. 3.4 column—Colonel Campbell. H.M. 52nd Regiment, 2nd Fusiliers, and Ist Panjaub Warta-y-10 assault by the Cashmere Gate aaer it should be blown open. Engineer officers attached—Lieutenants Home, Salkeld, and Tandy. 4th column—Major Reid. Detachment of European Regiments, Sirmoor Battalion, Guide IM'antry, and detachment of Dogealis—To atiaek the suburb K;ssengange, and enter the Laho' e Gate. Engineer officers attached—Lieutenants Maunsell and Tennant. 6th column—Brigadier Low - 4 field. H.M. 60. h Rifles, Kumaon Ba.,alion, and 4th Punjanb Inrantry, the reserve. Eigideer officers attached—Lieutenants Ward and Tkackeray. At four a.m. the different columns fell in and were marched to their respective places, the heads o: Nos. 1,2, and 3 columns being kept concealed uniil the moment for the actual assault should arrive. The signal was to be the advance of the Rifles to the front to cover the heads or the columns by skirmishing. Everything being ready, General Nicholson, whose excellent arrangements elicited the admiration of all, gave the signal, and the Rifles cleaned to the front with a cheer, extending along and sk;rmish ing the low jungle, which at this point ex tends to within flay yards of the ditch. At the same moment the heads of Nos. 1 and 2 columns emerged from the Koodsee Itagh, and advanced steadily to- wards the breach. Oar batteries had maintained a tremendous fire up to the moment of the advance of the troops, and not a gun could the enemy bring to bear on the storming columns ; but no sooner did these emerge into the open than a perfect hailstorm of bullets met them from the front and both flanks, and officers and men fell fast on the crest of the glacis. For ten minutes it was impossible to get the ladders down into the ditch to ascend the scarp, hut the determination of the British soldier carried all before it, and Pandy declined to meet the charge of the British bayonet. With a shout and a rush the breaches were both won, and the enemy fled in confusion. Meanwhile, the explosion party advanced in front of the column straight upon the Cashmere Gate. This little band of heroes ( tor they were no less) had to advance in broad daylight to the gateway in the very teeth of a hot fire of musketry from above, and through the gateway and on both flanks the powder-bags were coolly laid and ad justed ; but Lieutenant Salkeld was by this time hors de ewnbal, with two bullets in him. Sergeant Carmichael then attempted to fire the train, but was shot dead. Ser geant Burgess then tried and succeeded, but paid for the daring act with his life. Sergeant Smith, thinking that Burgess too had failed, ran forward, but, seeing the train alight, had just time to throw himself into the ditch and escape the effects of the explosion. With a loud crash the gateway was blown in, and through it the third column rushed to the assault, and entered the town just as the other columns had won the breaches. General Wilson has since bestowed the Victoria Cross on Lieutenants Home and Salkeld, on Sergeant Smith, and on a brave man of her Majesty's 52nd, who stood by Lieutenant Sal keld to the last, and bound up his wounds. General Nicholson then formed the troops in the main guard inside, and with his column proceeded to clear the nimparts as far as the Moree Bastion. It was in ad vancing beyond this, towards the Lahore Gate, that he met the wound which has since caused his lamented death, a death which it is not too much to say has dimmed the lustre of even this victory, as it has deprived the country of one of the ablest men and the must g;dhuit soldiers that Lugland anywhere numbers among her ranks. 1129 The 4th column, I regret to say, failed, but as it was too far for me to know anything of its real progress, I prefer leaving its story to be told by another, instead of sending you a vague and imperfect account. Had this column succeeded, its possession of the Lahore Gate would have saved us much subsequent trouble. I regret that my account must stop here, as, being wounded myself at this stage of the proceedings, I was unable to witness the subsequent capture of the magazine, the Burn Bastion, the Palace, and finally of the whole city. Some one else will, doubtless, conclude my story in a more worthy manner than I have told it. On the day of the assault we had 01 officers and 1,178 killed and wounded, being nearly one-third of the whole number engaged. The Ist Fusiliers alone lost nine officers, and other regiments, I believe, in proportion. The Engi neers suffered heavily; the three oft/zero conducting Nue. 1,2, and 3 columns (Lieuts. Medley, Greathed, and Maunsell ) were all struck down early iu the fight, and of 17 officers on duty that day 10 were put hors de combui. The loss of the enemy is never likely to be ascertained, but at the end of the operations it is probable that at least 1,500 men must have been killed between the 7th and 20th, and a very large number wounded who were carried away. THE CAPTURE OF THE KING. The capture of the old King was effected without difficulty—he appears to have made little effort to escape. The heir-apparent accompanied the main hotly of the enemy in their retreat upon Oude : On the 21st the old King surrendered to Captain Hod son and his cavalry near the Kootub !dinar, which is about l:i miles south of Delhi. He was accompanied in his cap tivity as in his flight by his chief wife, the Begum Zeenut Mahal, "the Ornament of the Palace." The King is said to be nearly ninety years of age, and it is probable that he is scarcely in any way responsible for what has been done in his nailer, so that, as at present informed, we cannot condemn the clemency which has spared his life. He is now a prisoner in what was once his own palace. Two of his sons ands grandson, however, who were captured also by Captain Hodson, at the tomb of Hu. mayoon, about five miles from Delhi, and who are known to have been leaders in the rebellion, have received the reward of their treason. They were shot on the spot, and their bodies were brought back to the city and exposed at the Kotwallee or chief police-office, where it is said au many of our countrymen were brutally murdered.—Bombay Gazelle. On the 23rd two columns of our troops started in pursuit of the fugitives, one under Colonel Greathed, of H.M. Bth (King's) Regiment, marching uu Allyghur, the other proceeding down the right bank of the Jumna towards Muttra and Agra. We have no precise information as to what these pursuing forces have dune; indeed, the reports as to the move• ments of the enemy or of these columns in pursuit are very obscure. The Times Bombay correspondent doubts whether more than one pursuing column is in the field. Colonel Greathed had with him 1,600 European and Sikh Foot, the 9th Lancers, and three troops of horse artillery. The army at Delhi was so weakened by its losses that it is scarcely possible any further force could be safely detached in put suit : It appears, indeed, clear that the vast majority of the mutineers who did tot meet death in the city marched down the Jumna on the Muttra road, keeping at first on the right or Delhi bank; but that at some point of the road, or points, perhaps, large bodies of them mussed the river into the Duab. We still hear of the Bareilly Brigade, the Neemuch Brigade, and so on. The former of these bodies, together with er prezeded by the Nusseerabad rebels, are said thus to have crossed the stream. The Neemuch people, according to reports at Agra, were bent on joining their comrades fruiu Incline, who were still at Dholpore, on the Chumbul. But, in truth, the movements of the mutineers are at present obscure. Nor are those of the British much less so. We are told at one time that two purstting columns lea Delhi,—one on either side of the river ; that the one on the right was commanded by Colonel Greathed, of the Bth, and had presumably reached or passed Muttra, iu which direction heavy firing was heard from Agra on the 27th ; and that the one on the left, under Brigadier Showers, arrived at Soruna, sixteen miles from Ailyghur, on the 28th. On the other hand, it is undoubted that if Colonel Greathed started, as I believe he aid, on the riOt bank, he crossed to the lett shortly afterwards ; for on the 27th he attacked and defeated the Jhansi mutineers posted in a strong posi• tion at liolundshuhur, capturing two guns and killing and wounding a considerable ninulJer, with a loss to himself of about sixty killed and wounded. No officers are returned as killed, but four as severely wounded. The effect of this skirmish was the evacuation by the rebels of the strong fort of Malagliur in the neighbourhood, which was thereupon occupied by a party of cavalry. The following aro the messages received at Bom bay since the precis from the Adjutant-General of the Army : Lahore, Sept. 20, Two p.m.—We now have Selimgnrh and the bridge. I hope to be able to report shortly that we are in possession of the Torkmati and Delhi gates and bastions, and entirely master of the whole town. Sept. '2O, Five p.rn.—Our struggle has ended here. We have possession of the whole city, the pelPtce, Selimgurh, and the bridge. Number of guns taken in the town and Delhi bastions are unknown. Our loss to-Jay is trifling. Lahore. Sept. •2l—The capture of the city of Delhi, of die palace. and the fort of Selirugurh, was completed yes terday. All honour to the noble army which, under the coutinand of Major-General Wilson, has effected this •