The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-19 00:00:00

910 The gravity of the event and the apprehensions of the Government were marked at Pounah by instant preparations for blowing up the arsenal and for the general evacuation of the town, followed by the arrest on August 6th of the Rajah and the Ranees of Sattara, with the Moulvie of Poonah, and several natives of influence, at Belgaum and Altinedntiggur, and their immediate removal to and confinement at Bombay. Fro►n the letter► intercepted at the Poonah post ofliee it is reported that the full details of the con spiracy and conspirators led to the arrest of these persons. A general panic in Bombay has of course been the result of this outbreak. But the revolt of the Bombay troops is not the only additional mutiny we have to report. At Dina pore three regiments of the Bengal infantry, the 7th, Bth, and 40th, with the 17th Irregular Cavalry, which had hitherto remained stanch to the last, in the most unaccountable manner, say the Bombay papers, broke out in revolt on 26th July. These regiments had hitherto assisted us in suppressing rebellious symptoms, and every confidence was felt in their loyalty. But a week or two previously those very regiments had assisted at the execution of a number of rebels at Patna, and themselves preserved the safety of the town, and yet, after all, they revolted at a critical moment and marched off 3,000 strong to seize Benares. General Lloyd, in command at Dina pore, had exhibited such unaccountable inaction iu permitting the rebels to mutiny and march off with out attempting to intercept them that he has been superseded by General Outram, who has assumed the command of the district. Having let them go, it appears that General Lloyd started a steamer up the river with the 10th Foot and a battery of artillery in pursuit ; they came up with the rebels at Arrah, a town between Dinapore and Ghazeepore, and 3:20 of the 10th in a night attack were forced to retreat with the loss of nine officers and 147 men. Rumour added that 47 Europeans had been murdered at Arrah by the sepoys. The Poonah Observer offers some curious remarks upon this mutiny : The whole of this revolt is the most mysterious, nn• accountable affair that ever happened in the history of this country. Here are regiments breaking out at the eleventh hour, when the the was turning in our favour, and when European troops were passing continually up the river, thereby rendering the destruction of the mutineers certain, as if they waited for some mysterious order, just like the Bareilly troons. Altogether, the more we ponder over it the more mysterious the whole matter appears to us. As to the state of Benares, to which city these troops are marching, the following extract of a letter, dated July glst, will explain A plot was discovered here yesterday, and three of the worst characters in the town, and • banker with eight lace of rupees, apprehended. Letters of a highly treasonable nature were discovered ; they purported to be from " a certain great one," and called on the in habitants to rise and destroy Messrs. Tucker, Gubbins, Lind, and all Europeans. The plan was that these three were to raise the disaffected characters. and having made away with those I narnelby treachery or night attack, were to polish off all the rest of us. The banker was men honed by name as the person from whom they were to get funds, and in his house some 200 swords, guns, &c., were faund. The rebels are reported to be advancing by forced marches upon Ilenares and Allahabad, both of which cities, denuded of European troops, and between 000 and 700 miles from Calcutta, will fall easily. The fate of Agra seems doubtful. Letters from the Delhi camp say that on the 14th the rebels fired " a salute of twenty-one guns for the sack of Agra and the reverse we had experienced there" ; but letter from Agta of the 16th, according to the Hurkarii, makes no mention of the affair. There are 0,000 persons shut up there in the fort anxiously looking out for relief ; and well they may, for we are told that " notwithstanding the imposing aspect of its walls, the fort is in such a thorough state of dilapidation, that no salutes for some time past have been fired from it, for fear the whole fabric should came down." We come now to the details of the advance of Ganeral Havelock, who in eight days of July marched 1::6 miles, fought four actions, and cap tured twenty-four gnus. The last intelligence was in substance that General Havelock had engaged the Nana Sahib several times, and reoccupied Cawnpore. The details of these engagements are full of interest. The march to Futte)pore was attended with great fatigue and exhaustion from excessive heat. The 64th led, followed by the artillery, then the 78th Highlanders and 84th, the baggage and tents on elephants and irregulars. At the halting place the troops drew up in battle array, waiting for the tents, and when they arrived encamped in the order of the halt. 'The following interesting letter, dated Cawnpore, July 18, from the pen of an officer of the gallant Ist Alailras Fusiliers, gives a full account of the proceedings of the little army : As we are to have a quiet day today I will try and write a somewh►t longer letter than usual. As I told you in my last letter (1Ith), and as we bad expected all along, we THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 19, 1857. found the rebels in position at Futteypore, with twelve guns. On Sunday, the Nth inst., we arrived within two miles of their position, at about seven o'clock; I was sent out with a party of our men (Ist Madras Fusiliers) to re connoitre, but when we had advanced about half a mile from the camp they commenced firing on us with their heavy guns, and their cavalry came towards us. We fired on them, but, as our party consisted of about silty men, we retreated leisurely towards the camp. As soon as we got there the whole force was under arms. This was about seven o'clock, a.m. We now advanced regularly against them, and in about three hours we drove them from their position, took twelve guns, and drove them from Futteypore pell-mell. If we had only had some cavalry we could have cut them nearly all up. We halted the other side of Futteypore that day, and also the next morning. On Tuesday we marched sixteen miles to Kullianpore, but did not meet with the enemy. On ‘Vednesday we marched about five miles, and found the rebels in a strong position, with six guns. We soon silenced their guns, and advanced against them, and, after about two hours sharp firing, we thoroughly routed them, and they retreated to a bridge about three miles off, where they had another very strong posi tion, with six guns. Our Enfields did splendid work, and we soon silenced their battery. I was in front with the skirmishing party all day. We rushed up to their battery and took their bridge and guns, when they all fled before us like so many sheep ; they really are arrant cowards. Thus ended our day's work. Poor Major Renaud, who commanded our detachment, was wounded early in the morning in the leg; he is now better, but I fear his leg will be obliged to be amputated ; he is a very gallant officer. I was with him at the time, but he would not allow me to remain, but said " do on with your men." On Thursday we marched against the enemy, about 6,000 strong, who were in position about five miles from Cawnpore, and this was the hardest day's work we ever had. They had six or eight guns, in two separate batteries. NVe advanced straight against them, and they poured grape and round shot into us, like so many hailstones, yet our loss was not very great. We lay down, and then advanced against their first battery, which was taken in fine style. I went off' with a small party (about forty men) to the right flank, where the cavalry were threatening us, and some of their infantry had a strong position. We kept them al a distance with our rifles, and once, when some of the cavalry (about 500) came down upon us, we formed square, and they did not dare come near us. This elicited great applause from the general and everybody. My party then joined the main column, and we now advanced against the other battery. When we came within range down poured the round shot and grape. We were ordered to lie down, but the scoundrels had got their distance so well that several were wounded. Six !nee of her Majesty's 04th Regiment were killed, and poor Captain Currie, of the 81th, severely wounded by a round shot. We had several men wounded. I bad a bullet on my topie (felt hat) which providentially glanced off, and Captain Raikes had a por tion of his swordhilt carried away. Well, fancy! when they saw us down again they thought we were afraid to advance, so they sounded the advance, and then the double. The general ( Havelock) now gave his order—" Rise up ; advance !" The whole line gave a cheer—such a cheer it must have made the villains tremble from head to foot, and advanced in line against their battery•, under a heavy cross fire, which they kept up very well, but did not do us much damage, as they fired s.) high. They evacuated their bAttery, and fled in every direction. We fired into them till they were out of range, and then rushed up the hill, and found, to our joy, Cawnpore about half a mile in front. We bivouacked on the rising ground for the night. You should have heard the cheer we gave as our gallant coin mender, General Havelock, rode down the lines ; it was indeed a tine sight. He on every occasion praises our men, and is going to make a special report of us to the commander-in-chief. Only fancy our horror on hearing that the same night we gave them such a heating at Futteypore, they killed, or rather massacred, all the ladies whom they hitherto had spared in Cawnpore (ex cept five or six who were concealed by their native servants). Miss Wheeler, the daughter of Sir H. Wheeler, they say, killed five of these fiends with a revolver before they could get near her. What an heroic spirit she must have had. The sight of the place where these _pour ladies were murdered is indeed awful. Long tresses of hair—dresses covered with blood—here and there a work box or bonnet. All the bodies are in a well. I hope we shall be able to bury them, and pay the last honour to their remains. The few that are still liming are all more or less ill, and dreadfully weak. You may imagine their delight on seeing us. They were nll along in a dreadful state of mind, as they were afraid that their servants might be tempted to betray them ; but, for once, these natives did not. Ought they not to be rewarded ? To our great re gret we heard yesterday that Sir H. Lawrence died about a week ago. We go on to-morrow to Lucknow, which is about fifty miles from Cawnpore. We cross the river Ganges to o—, after first taking an intrenched position which the enemy occupy at Bhitoor, about three miles up this bank of the Gauges. This is the Nana's own village ; he is intrenched with twenty-four guns, of which we shall make short work to-morrow, and then go on direct to Lucknow, which we hope to reach in three days. The barracks which were occupied by Sir H. Wheeler are regularly riddled with shot, so you may imagine low well he held out. Brigadier-General Neill is coming to us with another column of 1,1100 men from Allahabad; be had already lett, or will leave immediately; we are all very sorry he is not with us. The following official despatch was partially given in our la-4 account : From Brigadier• General liavelcek. dated Cawnpors Canton• went. Jule :7. By the blessing of God 1 recaptured tt.le place yesterday. and totally defeated Nana Sahib iu person, ttking mire than six suns, (our of siege ware. The enemy were Mr.ingly posted behind a succession of villages, and obstinately disputed for 140 minutes every inch of the ground, but I was enabled, by a flank movement to my right, to turn his left, and this gave us the vic tory. Nana Sahib had barbarously murdered all the captive women and children before the engagemeut. He has retired to Bliitoor, and blew up this morning, on his retreat, the Cawnpore magazine. He is said to be strongly fortified. I have not yet been able to get in the return of killed and wounded, but esti mate my loss at about 70, chiefly from the fire of grape. Au officer writes from Allahabad as follows on the 26th of July : Havelock's force left Allahabad on the evening of the 7th, the rain pouring down in torrents ; and, after it ceased raining, the heat of the sun became so intense that several of the force were smitten doWn by sunstroke, Of the 78th three died from this cause, viz.. Quarter master-Sergeant Tullock and Privates Gibbs and Menzies, of the Grenadiers. When the brigade were about fifty or sixty miles from this they found the enemy drawn np in great numbers, and occupying a strong position to oppose the further progress of our little force. Before the action commenced, General Havelock addressed the 78th thus " Highlanders! when we were going to ilohatirah, I promised you a field day. I could not'give it you then, as the Persians ran away; but, Highlanders, we will have it, to-day, and let them see what you are mude of." At it then they went, and our men did show them what they were made of—for, after several hours' hard fighting, the rebels fled, and our fellows charged and captured eleven guns at the point of the bayonet, together with some ammunition and treasure. After this affair, the brigade recommenced their march, and coming across the scoundrels a second time, gave them battle, dis persed them, and captured four more guns. When within six miles of Cawnpore, they came across the enemy a third time, drawn up for battle, and again fought them, but this was the hardest fight of any they had hitherto engaged in. The mutineers however fled, after a fierce encounter, leaving us in possession of the field, and fourteen guns; we cut the rebels up fearfully, and might have done still gretter execution if we had any cavalry that could be relied upon. After the action was over, General Havelock disarmed and dismounted the native cavalry, and made coolies of them for refusing to charge when ordered. It is likely they will be hung. General Havelock gave our men great praise for their bravery that day. Upon the Highlanders and our old friends and fellow-campaigners, the 64th, fell the brunt of the battle, but the filth suffered moat. Everything is quiet in this place, but we are all on the alert and pre pared for an attack, as there is every reason to apprehend one from the inhabitants, who do not seem to relish the summary manner in whizli we hang numbers daily. Our regiment is scattered all over the province. On entering Cawnpore our soldiers were horrified at the spectacle that met their eyes. They marched straight to a place where they were t)lii 175 women and children were confined, but on their arrival they found that they had come too late! They only found the clothes of the poor victims strewn over the bloodstained ground. The scene of this horrible catastrophe was a paved courtyard, and one of the Highlanders in writing says:-- There were two inches of blood upon the pavement. and from the report that we got from the residents of the piked it appears that, after we had beaten the enemy the evening previous, the sepoys and sowara entered the place where the ur.happy imams where, killed all ladies, and threw the chit seen aave, as well as the ladies' dead bodies, into a well in the compound. I saw it, and it was an awful sight. It appears from the bodies we saw that the women were• stripped of their clothes beioie they were murdered. The extent of the frightful catastrophe now be came known. A wholesale massacre had been per petrated by the fiend Nana Sahib : 83 officers, 190 men of her Majesty's filth Foot, 70 ladies, 12a women and children of her Majesty's 32nd Foot, and the whole European and Christian population of the place, including civilians, merchants, shopkeepers,. engineers, pensioners and their families, to the num ber of about 400 persons, were slain. The court yard in front of the Assembly-roams, in which Nana Sahib had held his headquarters, and in which the women bad been imprisoned, was swimming in blood. A large number of women and children, who had been spared alter the capitulation for hostages, had been barbarously slaughtered ou the previous morning—the women having been stripped naked, beheaded, and thrown into a well ; the children having been hurled down alive upon their butchered mothers, whose blood yet reeked on their mangled bodies. We hear of only four who escaped—a Mrs. (Ireenway, wife of a merchant, and three India- Britons : The history of the world (says the Bombay Telegraph' , affords no parallel to the terrible massacres which during the last few mouths have desolated the land. Neither age, sex, nor condition has been spared. Children have keen compelled to eat the quivering flesh of their munlered parents, after which they were literally torn asunder by the laughing fiends who surrounded them. Men in many iipitances have been mutilated, and, beforebeing absolutely kille I, have had to gaze upon the last dishonour of their wives and daughter* previous to being put to death. After two days' rest at Cawnpore, General Have lock followed Nana Sahib to Bhitoor. It was by nature and art an almost impregnable position. But