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

INDIA. DELHI AND CAWNPORE. TUE narrative of events before Delhi is brought down to the 14th July. The position of affairs at Delhi may be summed up in very few words. The city remained in the hands of the rebels, who had been strengthened by powerful reinforcements, and appear to be animated with a belief in their success. In the British camp our army, though reinforced by a few native regiments, is as yet barely capable of doing more than hold its own against the frequent and deperate assaults of the rebels, and every inci dent and fact connected with the siege tells us that the old story of Sebastopol is being repeated outside Delhi, we are besieged as well as besieging, and the fall of the city must not be looked for for months : Here we are still before Delhi ( writes a staff officer), and not likely to get in till reinforcements arrive from England, for our force is about one-third the enemy's in numbers, and they outnumber us altogether in guns and ammunition, Delhi being one of the largast arsenals in India. We are therefore quite unable to besiege the place regularly, and our nearest batteries are 1;200 yards off. The engineers urged an assault, and everything was arranged for it, but at the last moment the general hung back, and since then we have lust so many men that I don't think the idea will be ever entertained again. The native reinforcements our camp had received were rather a disadvantage. They were not all to be relied upon : The cavalry regiments of the Punjanb force ( writes the Tigers correspondent) contain many Mussulmans and high-caste llindoos, from Hindustan Proper and Rohil mind, while the Bengal irregular cavalry regiments are mainly composed of such elements. These men are as a class utterly disloyal, and their presence with the force in any numbers must be embarrassing. And so it has proved. In the 2nd Punjaub Cavalry it has been found necessary to disarm some seventy Hindustan men and to hang three, one a superior native officer. The 17th Irregulars have not, so far as we have heard, behaved amiss yet, but of the oth Irregulars, which have been some time with the force, severat troopers have deserted, and the 4th Irregulars have, I believe, murdered their adjutant, while on detachment duty. It will be seen at a glance that in so small a camp the presence of disaffected troops, whose sympathies are with the rebels in the city, may lead to grave disasters, for it is more than probable they will intrigue with the rebels, and may at a critical moment, when our soldiers are engaged repelling a serious assault, turn the fortunes of the day by their defection. Besides the sentiments towards us of the Sikhs are not without grave suspicion. But to pass on to the events before Delhi. "We are still sitting' before this city (writes Major Cobbe on the 13th July), and I do not know what the plans of the campaign ere—whether we are to wait for rein forcements expected up from the south, or to attack the place and take it by assaults " The latter ought to have been adopted some days ago, but 1 think the former plan is the one that will be pur- sued ; and if the European troops who are said to be marching up are near undoubtedly it will be the wiser plan. Not one Hindostsnee sepoy can be trusted. The Sikhs and Glioorkas (hill men, chiefly from Nepaul), as well as the l'imjaubee irregular troops, are the only natives we can trust, and they are fighting right manfully by our side ; but they are not numerous, and our European soldiers are not many, as our force is the " Reserve Army of India." We are, however, well off in field artillery, about thirty four or thirty-six field-guns, manned by Europeans, also a good number of foot artillerymen, consisting of both Europeans and Sikhs. Our infantry consists of about 3,400 men, 2,400 of whom are Europeans, the rest natives of the class above mentioned. There have been a great many skir mishes since I last wrote—indeed, the average is about two or three a week. The sepoys are great hands at concealing themselves well under cover, but if you catch them on the open ground they are great cowards. And then, referring to the general prospect of affairs, he writes : Long before this I hoped to have told yon of the fall of Delhi. We must have patience, however. I mail be wrong, but I fancy the present campaign will not be con cluded till March or April. If we get over the hot weather all right it will be pleasant enough moving about after these sepoys, but at present the climate is trying, and after a day spent on duty one feels quite knocked up, but, as I said before, I never felt better. I hope the Govern ment will not delay in sending us out troops ; 30,000 ought to be sent out, and as many as possible through Egypt by the overland route. The whole of India is in a ern teal state. Troops from Malta and Gibraltar might be 1 ushed un. Our position is not at all favourable. "Our bat teries," writes an officer in the camp, " are 1,300 yards from the walls ; and at that distance our shot THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 5,1857. and shell make very little impression. Our largest mortars are 8 inch ; whereas the enemy have 10-inch. Our largest guns are 21-pounders, which we took from the enemy, and, as we have no ammunition for them, we are obliged to collect all the shot they fire at us, and send them back at them." Add to this we have the cholera in the camp : Cholera, I am sorry to say (writes one), is in the camp, and I write this by the side of what I tear may be the death-bed of an excellent fellow of my regiment. I have been with him all night, and he appears better now, so he may survive it, but cholera just now is very deadly. Cholera (writes another) has made its appearance, and before half of our little army are laid upon their backs with sickuess my opinion is that we ought to run the chance and endeavour to take the fortress. The battle of the 23rd June, noticed in our last, proved extremely severe. The rebels attacked our rear from the Subzee Mundee in force, taking advantage of the garden walls, inclosures, and houses which abounded there, and our left flank near the Met calfe-house battery; and their object was to destroy that work : The day proved intensely hot, yet some of the rebel sepoys came out in their English uniforms, and even brought one of our colours into the field. It was soon evident that the efforts made to gain possession of our battery would fail. This part of the attack was therefore speedily abandoned, and the principal efforts became concentrated on the Subzee Mundee, where our men and the rebels fought hand to hand for many hours. The Ist and 2nd Fusiliers, the 60th Wiles, and Ohoorkas, bore the first brunt of the engagement, but such was the vigour of the rebels and the paucity of our force compared to them, that it became necessary to order out Itutliney's Sikhs, who had arrived in the morning after marching twenty four miles during the night. The rebels clung to cover with the tenacity of bears, and our men were mad to get at them fairly, yet unable to do so. The walls and houses behind which they skulked had been loopholed, and Major Tombs, who led the artillery and fought as he had always done before with the greatest daring, was materially impeded in his movements by these obstacles. Fortunately, no casualty occurred in the artillery, although Major Tombs had several horses wounded; one young officer and three gunners, however, were knocked down by sunstroke. In one single instance the anxiety of the mutinous sepoys to keep cover proved the ruin of them. Some of our men burst into an inclosure in which were 150 of the enemy. They did not fire a shot, but rushed at them with the bayonet and slaughtered every man. One desperately wounded sepoy had received seven bayonet wounds. He was despatched, murmuring with his last breath, " Feringhee soir," " the infidels are pigs." A little after sunset our infantry and artillery overcame all resistance, and the enemy withdrew into Delhi. Their retreat was disastrous, for they retired by the road to the Lahore gate, commanded by a new battery of three pounders, recently erected to check sallies in that direc tion. These guns played effectually on their ranks, and committed great havoc amongst them. The day's opera• tions terminated by our sappers blowing up a number of the houses which had afforded so much protection to the rebels. Our loss was es‘imated at lz.so killed and wounded, of whom 45 were European soldiers.—D. News cur. On the 24th and 25th the rebels remained quiet in Delhi. On the 20th the first desertion of rebels from the town occurred. In the course of the day a large number of soldiers were observed to rush out from the town in great confusion, and fly under a vigorous discharge of grape from the walls. For a week the fugitives marched about the country, and at length came into our camp and surrendered, claiming pardon under Mr. Colvin's proclamation. The men belonged to the 9th Native Infantry, which mutinied at Alleygurgh and Etasvalt. Their number is not mentioned. Another general attack on our right and left flanks was repulsed on the 27th, the rebels on our right being supported by guns in the Eedgah, which once before we had taken from them and abandoned: — This day (Tuesday, June 27) was one of the hardest days' fighting we have had. Our men were turned out at three in the morning without breakfast, and continued fighting the whole day till dusk, without any food, in a blazing sun. So you may fancy how terribly done they were. Some of them had just arrived from a t2-mile march, and were turned out half an hour after their arrival in camp. The enemy bad established themselves in a village on the right of our position, in which they had posted two heavy guns, which raked our batteries and threw shot and shell into the camp. Our men charged through and through this village (or town, rather, as it was com• posed almost entirely of strong stone houses and iu• closures) ; but the blackguards had shut themselves so strongly in that our men could not force the doors, and it was not till evening that they were all turned out. Our loss was about 100 killed and wounded; theirs is said to have been 1,000-500 I fancy is nearer the mark. The great want in this, as in all our actions, was the want of a head ; officers lead on their parties without any method or arrangements; one great mistake was their not sending on sappers with the attacking force, as if they had we should have been able to burst in the doors, and ao enable the troops to get at the niggers. Many of our men were so done that they sank down on the road, even under fire, dead beat, and went off to sleep. There were also several cases of sunstroke. 861 It was ascertained in this affair that the ammunition of the rebels was scarce., some of our men having been killed by slugs made of telegraph wire. Two of the enemy's light field-pieces were disabled. Their loss is given at 401 men. Colonel Hartley, ap pointed to succeed Brigadier Hallifax, left head quarters for Uinballab, and Hodson's Irregular Horse was aspat , thed to restore the Bhagput-bridge and the communication with Meerut. The Jheend Horse, says the Daily News correspondent, whose duty it was to keep the bridge, were frightened at the rumoured approach of a force from Delhi, broke the bridge, and fell back. Some military men, he adds, see in this something little short of mut►ny and treason. The channel of the Delhi canal was successfully diverted by our engineers, and the supply of water cut Gfi from the city, the Jumna water not being drinkable, from the strong impregnation of nitre. Upon the 30th another sortie was made. A burst of artillery from the walls, followed by a desperate rush on our advanced works, brought up our men in force, who after five hours' warm fighting drove back the rebels. • - ----- In the evening General Barnard went out with a small force and set fire to a number of buildings near the city. Fresh evidence was gathered as to the rebels wanting ammunition, the shells they sent up having portfires instead of fusees. The advanced pickets succeeded in capturing a man in search of percussion caps, who stated that the caps were worth an anna each, and bullets valued at two annas 1,31.) in the town. On the next day, the Ist of July, there was ob served from the English lines on the ridge a large encampment on the further side of the Jutnna, and opposite to Delhi : It was the whole body of the Rohilcand mutineers from the three stations of Bareilly, Moradabad, and Shahjehan pore, four regiments of infantry, one of irregular cavalry, and a battery of artillery. For a time it had been hoped, as I wrote a fortnight ago, that they would find the Ganges impassable, but the anticipated rise of the river did not take place—it was crossed at Gurmukteser, the usual place of passage, the //oat) was traversed, and Delhi was attained. For two whole days our troops had the mortification of watch ing the lung train of men, guns, horses, and beasts of burden of all kinds (for there was a large treasure with the rebels — sag live Lacs, 50,00)L, at an average estiinate) streaming across the bridge of boats into the city, without the possibility of preventing or in any way annoying them. An immediate attack on the part of the reintorcements was anticipated from the known practice of the insurgents in regard to new arrivals. Accordingly, on the afternoon of the 3rd they came out in force, and threatened the right rear of the English position. But, finding our men well prepared, they drew off and marched away seveeal miles to our rear along the Kurnaul road as far as Alipore, the place where our army bivouacked the night before the advance upon Delhi and the first brush with the enemy. Finding no enemy to oppose them, they returned, and though twelve guns, 1,00.) infantry, and two squadrons of cavalry had been sent out by General Barnard to intercept them, the rebels, after a short artillery fight, continued to effect their retreat with the loss only of a little baggage. Upon the sth July General Barnard died, after a few hours' illness, and Major General Reed, who is in feeble health, succeeded to the command. On the Bth a party was sent from the camp to destroy a bridge over the canal at the village of Bussy, some six miles from the city, and performed the work effectually, closing up one, perhaps the principal, of the avenues b) which the mutineers received sup- plies : Things are going on pretty much the same since I last wrote. On Monday evening last a party of sappers, under Lieutenant Maunsell and myself, went out to demolish a couple of bridges over the canal, about three miles from this, over which the enemy were in the habit of taking their artillery and forces when they wished to attack us in the rear. We were accompanied by a party of 100 infantry and 50 cavalry of the Guides (a fine set of fellows, most of them Sikhs from the Punjaub, and capital fellows to fight). We left camp about six p.m. and got to the bridges about dusk, without meeting any adventures except the capture of a few villagers. By 9.30 we had got the mines in the nearest bridge real) , for firing, and were hard at work on the further one, when the sentries came in to report that a large body of men were advancing on us from Delhi, and distant about two hundred yards. We had almost got the mines ready, and I was just lowering the last powder barrel into its place, when a panic seemed to strike the whole of the sentries, and horse and foot, about twenty in number, came pouring across the bridge and almost knocking the working party over, at the same time firing hard at the supposed enemy. As soon as possible (after dragging Maunsell out of the canal into which he had been knocked by the rush of our men) we got our men together and led them across the bridge, when we found that our foes were nothing inure than a party of fifty villagers removing their goods from the village in front. Two of them were killed by our Sre, the rest had bolted, leaving several ponies behind, which the Guides brought in in triumph. After this gallant exploit we blew up the two bridges, completely demolishing them, and got beck to