The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-05-11 00:00:00

INDIA.

By the arrival of the Bombay mail we have received
our private correspondence and files of papers from
Bombay to the 10th of April.
, BOMBAY, APRIL 9.
We have news from Lucknow by telegraph down to
yesterday. Four days previanaly Sir Ames Outram,
relieved as Chief Commissioner of Oude by Mr. Mont-
gomery, left Lucknow for Caleutts. His efforts to re-
store tranquillity in the city and throughout the pro-
vince had been only partially successful. As a whole,
Oude is still hostile to us. Some few chiefs and land-
holders have come in, but the majority yet remain
aloof. The Moulvie is suppoted to be at Sundeela, a
town 30 miles to the north-west of Lucknow, endeavour-
tng to organize a fresh resistance to the English power.
Men he will still be able to get in plenty, we may
imagine, but of arms and munitions of war the rebels
must by this be mainly deficient. The Berm is in a
fortress on the Gogra, of which the name is not given.
Meanwhile, the English grand army has been re-dis-
tributed, with a view to futdre operations in the field,
and to the protection of the recently-acquired capital.
For the garrison of LucknoW are designated the 23rd,
38th, 53rd, 90th, 97th, and Karina Fusileers, with the
Bays and Lahore Light Horse for Cavalry, and a large
proportion of artillery. Sir Hope Grant is in command
of this corps. For future operations against the rebels
the greater part of the remailder of the army is formed
into a division under the Commander-in-Chief in person
and Brigadier Walpole. Hee are the two battalions
(2nd and 3rd) of the Rifle Brigade, and three Highland
Regiments, 42nd, 79th, and 98rd, the let Bengal Fusi-
leers, and the 2nd and 4th Punjab Infantry. The
cavalry are the 7th Hussars and 9th Lancers, with two
irregular corps ; and of artillery there are four troops,
two batteries, and a siege train. The Naval Brigade
has gone down to Allahabad. With this force Sir Cohn
would probably move shortly upon Sundeela, and then
into Rohilcund ; but of his intended movements and,
indeed, of the causes of his delay at Lucknow we know
nothing as yet.
There still remains a portion of the army to be ac-
counted for—namely, a force consisting of the 34th,
10th, 84th, and 20th, with artillery, the Military Train-
and some irregular cavalry, which under Sir Edward
Lugard, marched from Lucknow on the 25th of last
month in a south-easterly direction. The object of this
movement is to save Aziinschur, which station has been
endangered by the rebels from the northward—probably
the same defeated by Brigadier Franks in his march to
Lucknow, and afterward by Colonel Rowcraft, near
Fyzabad, who having re-cecupied Goruckpore, marched
down to attack Azinighot Colonel Milman, command-
ing the wing of the 37th quartered in the station,
marched out to meet the 'enemy on his approach, with
his own men, the 4th Maims Cavalry, and, apparently,
two guns. Twenty miles rom Azimghur he came upon
the advanced guard of *is enemy, attacked and routed
it; but, being shortly afterwards assailed himself in
overwhelming strength, be was forced to make a pre-
cipitate retreat, in the course of which he lost his camp
and baggage. He reached his entrenchments in safety,
however, and there, it is 'hoped and believed, would be
able to maintain himse till reinforced by the 13th
Portion
Light Infantry and a of the 2nd Dragoon
Guards, who were sent ff from Allahabad with all
speed, and till relieved by Sir E. Lugard. We have no
information of the einem* of loss sustained by Colonel
Milman's force in this untoward affair. Probably his
information was defective, and led him to underrate the
numbers of his assailants. His opponent is no other
than Kooer Singh, whose name has of late been seldom
heard, but was well known some months ago in connec-
tion with the Dinapore mhtiny and the defence and re-
lief of Arrah.
_

From the two Bombay columns, the Central India
Field Force, under Sir Hugh Rose, and the Rajpootana
Field Force, under General Roberts, comee cheering
intelligence. Jhansi has fallen to the former, Kotah to 1
the latter. When I last wrote of Sir Hugh Rose's move-
ments in Central India he himself with his 2nd
Brigade, was at Tel Belid, on the road from Saugor to
Jhansi, while his lot Brigade was engaged in destroying
the captured fort of Chnedaree in his rear. This done,
Sir Hugh moved on after blowing up the fort of Tel
Behut, and the enemy's force which lay between him
and Jhansi withdrawing into the city on his approach,
the first detachment of his force, consisting of Horse
Artillery and Cavalry, appeared before the rebellious
city on the 20th of March, and the investment of the
p,ace commenced. The following day came in the rent
of the 2nd Brigade, and the let Brigade joined on the
23rd. For want of a plum of the town repeated recon-
nein/mod and consegued delays were inevitable. On
the 23rd, however, fire, vertical and horizontal, was
opened from • flanking battery in a strong position, and
• breaching battery was likely to be ready to begin on
the 25th or 26th. The enemy was suppose to consist of
1,500 Sepoys, of whom 500 were cavalry, and 10,000
Bundelar. His position was strong, the town being well
walled, and mounted froin 30to 40 guns. Above thetown,
and constituting a separate and very formidable position
was the huge castellated fortress-palace of the former
Rajahs. Thither from her palace in the town betook
herself our mortal foe, the titular Ranee, wife or mother
—I know not whiale—of the lad Rajah. At first it is
said, she attempted to open communications with the
British General, proposing to visit his camp, but that
her overtures wore checked at once by the assurance
that if she MRS she would certainly be hanged. I do
not know whether this story he true, but am diwposed to
think it more probable that she knew from the first that
it was hopeless to negotiate with the countrymen of
those whom she had pitilessly massacred, and prepared
to fight it out. Certainly, the subsequent progress of
the siege allowed no symptoms of wavering on the part
of the rebels or their Isadore. On what day the breach.
Mg battery opened its fire we are not exactly informed,
but by the 18011, from the Iwo attacks two 114.poun4ers,
two ILpounders, two Wench and six El•incle mortars,
with seams lighter Meal, were he full play upon the
town. The Are of the stony lee return wu vigorously
sostained, 1111(1 SO well directed that the Ann were of
opinion that among the union there inset be some of
the mutinied (Mondani., or native artillery. While
the besieging forme was thus engaged it came to the ears
of the 001101111 that a Inge rebel army, commanded by
SOO 111111141111 1100114 y, a relative in 101114 degree of Nana
Sahib and hie agent, Se I mentioned 111 the time, he
sodueing the mutinied °wailer Contingent from its
sullen repose at Moor., wee on Its way to relieve the
beleaguered city. The information Was true. From
which direction the sooty mune our intelligence, at
meant derived only fnen telegrams, bumf Inform um.
But I have no doubt Mat their nucleus at least Was the
force that NO long hao hung Inactive at Calves. How.
ever, in otrongth estimated- at froin 90,000 to 25 000
men, they advanced own Mir Hugh Bose, who joined
battle with them at daybreak on the morning of theist of
this month. Resolute neither to amen or elooken the fire
of his batteries', nor to lisoontinue the investment of the
plum the EngliehGenual could employ but email portion
of his faros to meet 01th new foe. But, employing that
small portion judiciously and turning the enemy's
Sank with cavalry and artillery, he succeeded in break-
ing And routing them after a stout resistance on the
part of their infantry, where fought the grenedler and
another regiment of the old Owallor contingent. Here
and then individuals oe small bodies stood their ground
and fought desperately till out to pious, but the main
body was soon in full flight for the ford of the river
Bawls, up to which point the cavalry and horse artillery
followed In pursuit through the biasing jungle' which
had been fired either designedly or by occident. All the
enemy's gun", 18 in number, all good and serviceable,
and an &Meth mortar, with quantities of ammunition,
were taken, and the country round, says the General,
' was strewn with deed bodies, chiefly those of Sepoys.'
Freed by this brilliant notion, which did not cost himn
the life of a single either, nor apparently of many men,
from all fear of interruption to his designs upon Jleansi,
Sir Hugh kept up the Wady fireof his batteries till, on the
evening of the 3rd, the breach was reported predicable.
On the morning of the 4th the storm took place, and
after a resistance described as ' digital-ate' and 'deter-
mined' the town of Jharesi was in our possession. The
only return we have yet received in detail is the loss of
killed and wounded among the officers, which I here
recapitulate, though you will, before this letter reaches
you, bantreceivid it by telegraph. The oflioere killed
during the siege operation' and storm are Lieutenant
Colonel 'Turnbull, Bombay Hone Artillery; Lieutenant.

Dick and Meiklejohh, Bombay Bngineers ; and Park,
Bombay 24th Native infantry; Captain J. Sinclair, 3rd
Infantry Hyderabad Contingent; and I/r. Stack, of the
Seth. The wounded are Lieutenants Prendergast and
Fox, of the Madras Bugineers ; Major Richards, i poli-
tical officer; Captain Darby and Lieutenant Dartnell,
of the 86th; Dr. Crnikshank, of the Bombay service;
and Lieutenants Clerk and Holroyd. The town thua
carried; it became a question how the fortress should be
assailed, and it was thought that mining and blowing up
one or more of the bastions was the only thing to be
done. But, happily, what with the defeat of the let
and the successful assault of the 4th, the Ranee and her
prople lost heart, and on the night of the 4th the fortress
was evacuated. The Ranee managed to slip away in the
darkness, and is now at Isloun, but the great stronghold
qf revolt at Bulidslennd la down, and a loss has been in-
flicted upon the rebels of the province which Sir H. Rose
rates 113 high as 3,000 men.
Sir Hugh's next move will probably be in the direc-
tion of Calpee, unless, indeed, a front of resistance
should be shown at Jaloun. The rebels who, as I wrote
in any last, seized on the town of Chirkaree, and
Hookrder, the Rajah, in his fort, appear to have melted
away again, probably forming part of the force which
Sir H. Rose defeated on the Ist.