The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 26,1857. in the Residency, and the mutinous troops were attacking from the outside ; great plunder was going on in the city. Outside the Residency there are many thousand men, but they are not all fighting men. Many of them are people of the city and lookers on. There may be about twelve regiments, and a few Ressalsha ; and it is true that on one occasion the British troops gave the mutineers a thrashing and put them to flight. More than 10'J of the mutineers are killed daily. Of those who die, they who have relations are burnt, otherwise the bodies are thrown into the Goom tee river. The wounded are carried away in doolies, and treated. Both in the city and in the camp there is great tumult; the mutineers do not now keep up so severe a cannonade as they did at first, and it is probable that their supplies of ammunition are running short, for at night, now, there is no firing from the guns, though musketry firing goes on. A gun or two may perhaps be fired at night. The sepoys who have plundered the city are walk ing homeward with their spoil. The mutineers are searching in the city for saltpetre, but I have not heard of their searching for copper caps; in fact, none are to be had in the city. Provisions are plentiful, and the Bunneahs have been told to keep their shops open, and sell for ready mon'y. All the mutineers have put up in the gardens of the city people, of which they have fGreibly taken posses sion. Rajah Goor Bus Singh, the Rajah of Rainnuggur, and Rajah Nawab Allee, and a great number of the petty neighbouring Rajahs, have joined the fight and given their assistance. But neither Rajah Man Singh nor his followers are there. We come now to a mutiny which may exercise important effects upon the campaign. We allude to THE MUTINY AT DINAPORE AND SEGOWLIE. "The home public," observes one of our daily contemporaries, " are scarcely alive to the full danger of the mutinies at Dinapore and Segowlie." They are indeed matters of grave interest and preg nant with danger, for they combine not only the elements of a tremendous outbreak at Benares, Patna, and throughout Southern Bengal, but they threaten to destroy the effect of General Havelock's victories, to compel him to act on the defensive at Cawnpore, and to insure the sacrifice of Lucknow. Let us briefly trace these events, and endeavour to show their bearing upon our position and prospects, premising that previous to the mutiny at Dinapore, troops could be forwarded from Calcutta to General Neill at Allahabad, both by the Ganges and the Great Trunk Road. By these mutinies it is much to be feared that both lines of communication will be temporarily stopped. At a time when the fate of a province hangs upon every hour, the importance of the slightest check upon our communications be tween Calcutta and Cawnpore to Delhi will be readily comprehended. On the 25th July three native regiments of in fantry, and one of irregular cavalry, broke out into mutiny at Dinapore. They were allowed to march off unpursued. One party crossed the Sone, and advanced upon Arrah, plundering and burning. En route they were joined by one Coor Singh and a strong body of ryots, bringing up their force to some 3,000 men. Arrived at Arrah, they besieged the alarmed Europeans, who with fifty trusty Sikhs had hastily intrenched themselves in a bungalow, and up to the 3rd of August maintained a gallant defence. General Lloyd, who appears to have acted with sin gular indecision on the 25th, three days afterwards despatched 330 European troops to their relief, with what result the following letter from one of the offi cers engaged in the disastrous affair will show One hundred and ninety men of the 37th Queen's were despatched from Dinapore at five o'clock on the evening of the 20th instant, in the Hoorangoita steamer and troop boat, destined for the relief of Arrah. It being moonlight they steamed on until ten o'clock, when the moon went down, and shortly afterwards the vessel got aground. In this position they remained for about thirty-six hours, when the Bombay was sent up from Dinapore on the morning of the 20th with 150 men of the 10th and about 70 Sikhs, the latter under the command of Captain Ingilby. The Bombay towed off the troopboat, but could not stir the Hoorungotia. Leaving her there, she steamed up the river with the whole force, now numbering more than 400 men, and landed them about four o'clock in the evening about twelve miles from Arrah. From this point they began their march upon Arrah. On the way they were informed that the place had been evacuated by the mutineers, and, relying on this, Captain Dunbar, of the 10th, who commanded, persisted in pushing on. It was eleven p.m., and quite dark, when they reached. They were at once tired into from both sides of the road ; volley after volley was poured into them by the unseen enemy, and decimated their ranks. What with the darkness and the confusion arising from an unexpected attack, they now got separated, and were afraid to fire, not knowing whether they would be killing friends or foes. Thus they remained all night, being repeatedly fired into by the enemy, who were, no doubt, acquainted with their w3ereabouts. As morning dawned they found themselves terribly reduced in numbers, and, knowing they were touch too weak to assume the offensive, began a retreat. Although this movement was conducted with all the skill that circum stances permitted, and under corer of skirmishers, they lost a great many men, being pawned incessantly by the enemy, who fired into them from behind trees and other hiding•places. It being impossible to carry away all those to get if possible further reinforcements. Unhappily, none to any extent could be afforded him. A letter from a gentleman volunteer attached to Brigadier-General Neill's camp at Cawnpore, dated August l, gives us a reliable picture of the state of affairs : On the 30th ult. General Havelock's force had proceeded about twenty miles towards Lucknow. In the morning of that day they came across a large body of the rebels in• trenched at a bridge; the rascals surrounded our gallant little band, but were beaten to nothing. Our force ad vanced, and in the evening attacked the rebels, who were in a second intrenchment. Our side gained the day, of course, and captured in all nineteen guns, but our loss was heavy, eighty five killed and wounded ; the guns were spiked or destroyed, and the general has retired to within four miles of us. Cholera is raging fearfully among our poor fellows, the casualties being reported at sixty per day. The enemy is said to be in tremendous force on the Luck• now road, so 1 presume the general will not advance against them until reinforced and he is relieved of his wounded. I believe it is the general's intention to bring away if possible all our poor people from Lucknow, and abandon Oude altogether for the present. This appears to me to be a very judicious plan, and I think Government should make it publicly known, because the rebellious scoundrels in the north-west would then make at once for their darling Oude, and leave our upper provinces quiet. A rumour is current here that Delhi has at last really been captured. I hope this may prove to be a fact. We are in daily expectation of reinforcements fr )m Allahabad. If they don't come soon our position here will be a very ticklish one just now ; there are only about 30:; men here, and the rascally niggers are said to be again collecting at Bhitoor. We have sent the Berhampooter steamer, with fifty Europeans, twenty five Sikhs, two guns, and a mortar, up the river to dislodge them ; we are in constant expecta tion of being attacked—have to stand to arms at night. It is said that the Nana's people have sworn to come and re• take the place, or perish ; they had better not attempt it, for 300 men with a commander like General Neill would give them something to do. It' his sick were at the rate of sixty a day, we can no longer be surprised at his return to Cawnpore. Another officer writes from Benares, Aug. 3rd : We have just heard very bad news. Havelock is obliged to suspend his advance. He says he has only 700 effec tive men left. As it is impossible that he Can be reinforced from this side foe a fortnight it is a regular fix. Both his force and Lucknow look very fishy. It is the worst news we've had yet. If it had not been for General —'s fatuous idiotcy strong reinforcements would have been past Allahabad already. I really should not wonder if that Dinapore fully does not end by losing Lucknow, Havelock, and Agra. And then, alluding to the melancholy mismanage ment of the Dinapore affair, adds : Havelock will get no reinforcements and will be driven back. Fenwick, of the 10th Queen's, has taken command at Dinapore. We are working like mad in getting our stores, &c., down to Raj Ghat. It is my private opinion that this place and Allahabad stand a chance of being the only two places in our occupation between Calcutta and the Punjaub, unless that Delhi foove does something quick. I have no fear of the ultimate result, of course, for 1 be• lieve God does not mean us to lose the country, but we are very shaky just now. An extra despatch from Calcutta, August the oth, states that Havelock was to re-advance on the 3rd, and a note states positively that he had again advanced towards Lucknow on the 4th. The following is the Government despatch : General Neill writes to the Commander-in•Cicief on the Bth inst., that General Havelock was to advance again to• wards Lucknow the following day. To this the Phenix Extra appends a note : We have ourselves received the following most satisfac tory news :—" General Havelock left Cawnpore again on the 4th of Augnst for Lucknow, having replaced his sick and wounded with fresh men. It will be apparent to all that ;Neill, with only a few men at Cawnpore, could not afford to reinforce Havelock to that extent which sickness and loss by war rendered necessary. However, the next mail will, it is to be hoped, clear up all doubts. For our own parts,if cholera is among Havelock's troops, we believe it is in the highest degree improbable that he should succeed in relieving Lucknow. If the rebels con tinue to dispute the ground with him inch by inch as they have done, he must fall back upon Cawnpore, and await those reinforcements which should be with him, but by the latest advices are stopped at Dinapore. Of the state of Lucknow nothing definite is known. Up to the 20th of July they were known to be safe. Major Banks, the commandant who succeeded on the death of Sir Henry Lawrence, is killed. The garrison could hold out, some team say, to the 6th of August ; others that it is provisioned for six months. In itself it is a strong position, but the Government nave published no facts showing the real situation of the besieged. The Calcutta Englishman publishes the following translation of a native letter received from Lucknow On Sunday, 12th Inly,l boat e'ght o'clock, I left Luck • now; up to that time all was well. The Europeans were 935 who were too severely wounded to walk, they were obliged to leave them to their fate. It is this circumstance which has made the tital loss so heavy, amounting, as it does, to fully one half of our force. The remnant made good their retreat to the steamer (including all those whose wounds permitted them to be helped along), and returned to D inapore at twelve o'clock yesterday. Thus ended this melancholy business. The march upon Arrah at night was very injudicious, as our soldiers never even had a chance of seeing the enemy until the following morning. The locality also was un known to them. They had no means of carrying away their wounded, and I am told the men of the 10th had had nothing whatever to eat the whole day of the 29th. I have heard only a few names of the officers who were killed, viz., Captain Ifigilby, Ensign Anderson, Captain Dunbsr, and the three officers of the 37th, whose names I don't know. The following is an interesting account of the affair at Arrah. It is dated from Patna, July 31, and written by a volunteer who took part in the ex• pedition : About eleven o'clock the moon went down ; however, as we did not expect that the mutineers would face us, we still went on till we came within about a mile of the forti fied house. We were passing a thick black mango grove to our right, when all of a sudden, without any warning, the whole place was lighted up by a tremendous volley poured into us at about thirty or forty yards distance. It is impossible to say how many men fired into us—some say 500, some 1,500. The next thing I remember was finding myself alone, lying in the middle of the road, with a crack on the head, and my hat gone. I suppose I must have been stunned for a minute. When I recovered there were several men lying by me, and not a living sonl could I see. There were lots to hear, though, for the bullets from right to lest were whistling over my head. I was just thinking where our men could be, and which way I should run, when I saw the sepoys advancing out of the grove with their bayonets within a dozen yards of me. I fired my double-barrel right and left into them, and then ran towards our men, whom I could hear shouting on the left, under a tremendous fire from both parties. Everything now was in a most dreadful confusion ; the men were scattered in groups of fifties and twenties, firing in every direction, and, I fear, killing each other. At last a Captain Jones, a very fine fellow—our commander was never seen again after the first volley—got hold of a bugler and got the men together in a sort of hollow place —a half-filled pond. There we all lay down in a square. I was in the middle, with the doctor, helping him to tie up the wounis of the poor fellows, and bringing them water. The firing was all this time going on. The enemy could see us, as we were all (tressed in whites, while they were nearly naked, and behind trees and walls. However, the men fired about at random. At last the poor doctor was knocked over, badly wounded. It was dreadful to hear the poor wounded fellows asking for help. I shall never forget that night as long as I live. We held a consultation, and determined to retreat, as the enemy was at least 8,000 or 4,000 strong, and had, be sides, several cannon. Directly morning dawned we formed order, and began our retreat. The whole distance, sixteen miles, we walked under a most tremendous fire ; the ditches, the jungles, the houses, and, in fact, every place of cover along the road was lined with sepoys. We kept up a fire as we went along, but what could we do? We could see no enemy, only puffs of smoke. We tried to charge, but there was nobody to charge ; on all sides they fired into us, and were scattered all over the country in groups of tens and twenties. Dozens of poor fellows were knocked over within a yard of me on my right and left, but, thank God, I escaped in the most wonderful way. The last five miles of the road I carried a poor wounded fellow, who begged me not to leave him, and though we had had nothing to eat for more than twenty-four hours, &Mir had had no sleep for two nights, I never felt so strong in my life, and I stepped out with the man as if he had been a feather, though he was as big as myself. Poor fellow ! the men, most of them more or less wounded, were leaving him behind, and the cowardly sepoys, who never came within 200 yards of us, were running up to murder him. I got the poor fellow safe over the nullah ; I swam out and got a boat, put him in, and want over with a lot of others. The poor fellow thanked me with tears in his eyes. At the crossing of the nullah we lost a great many men; they threw away their muskets to pull the boats and to swim over, and were shot down like sheep. I never before knew the horrors of war, and what I have gone through I hope will make a lasting impression on my mind, and make me think more of God and His great goodness to me. I sin sure Sod spared me because He knew I was not fit to die; and I pray God that He will prepare me, for we can truly say we know not what a day may bring forth. I had several extraordinary escapes, one bullet went between my legs as I was walking and broke a man's leg in front of me ; another bullet hit me on the back of the head, knocking me down but hardly breaking the skin. Everything here is quiet as yet, but people are in a great panic. I cannot say that I am. Out of the 400 fine fellows that started for Arrah nearly '2OO were killed, and of the remainder I' do not think more than 50 to 80 were riot wounded; out of seven volunteers five were knocked over, four killed and one wounded. This has been the most disastrous affair that has happened out here. I hope, however, we may soon get some more troops again from Calcutta, and get back our name. I cry to think of the way we were beaten, and of the number of poor fellows who wet s killed. I will send this letter at coca, for perhaps the dak may be stopped, and I may not be able to send a letter in a day or two. I will write again if I can, but do not be alarmed if Ido not. The crack on my head hardly broke the skin, and is nothing; the bullet