The Press.
London, England, 1858-01-16 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JANUARY 16, 1858.

made another assault, having previously sprung a mine
close to the brigade mess, which entirely destroyed our
defences for the space of twenty feet, and blew in a great
portion of the outside wall of the house occupied by Mr.
Schilling's garrison. On the dust clearing away, a breach
appeared, through which a regiment could have advanced
in perfect order, and a few of the enemy came on with the
Utmost determination, het were met with such a withering
flank fire of musketry from the officers and men holding
the top of the brigade mess, that they beat a speedy re-
treat, leaving the more adventurous of their numbers lying
on the crest of the breach. While this operation was
going on, another large body advanced on the Cawnpore
Battery, and succeeded in locating themselves for a few
minutes in the ditch. They were, however, dislodged by
hand grenades. At Captain Anderson's post they also
came boldly forward with scaling la lders, which they
planted against the wall ; but here, as elsewhere, they
were met with the most indomitable resolutioc, and the
leaders being slain, the rest fled, leaving the ladders, and
retreated to their batteries and loopholed defences, from
whence they kept up for the rest of the day an unusually
heavy cannonade and musketry fire. On the 18th August
the enemy sprung another mine 'in front of the Sikh
lines with very fatal effect. Captain Orr kunattached ),
Lieutenants Mecham and Soppitt, who commanded the
small bady of drummers composing the garrison, were
blown into the air, but providentially returned to earth
with no further injury than a severe shaking. The garri-
son, however, were not so fortunate. No leas than eleven
men were buried alive under the ruins, from whence it
was impossible to extricate them, owing to the tremendous
fire kept up by the enemy from houses situated not ten
yards in front of the breach. The explosion was followed
by a general aasaitlt of a less determined nature than the
two former effirts, and the enemy were consequently re-
pulsed without much difficulty. Hut they succeeded,
under cover of the broach, in establishing themselves in
one of the houses in our position, from which they were
driven in the evening by the bayonets of her Majesty's
3-I.nd anti 82nd Foot. On the sth Septeniber the enemy
made their last serious assault. Having exploded a large
mine, a few feet short of the bastion of the 18-pounder
gun, in Major Apthorpe's post, they advanced with large
heavy scaling-ladders, which they planted against the wall,
and mountegl, thereby gaining for an instant the embrasure
of a gun. They were, however, speedily driven back with
loss, by hand grit nades and musketry. A few minutes
subsequently they sprung another mine close to the brigade
mess, and advanced boldly ; but soon the corpses strewed
in the garden in front of the post bore testimony to the
fatal accuracy of the rifle and musketry fire of the gallant
members of that garrison, and the enemy tied ignomi-
niously,leaving their leader—a fine-looking old native officer
—among the slain. At other posts they made their
similar attacks, but with less resolution, and everywhere
with the same want of success. Their loss upon this (lay
must have been very heavy, as they came on with much
determination, and at night they were seen bearing large
numbers of their killed and wounded over the bridges in
the direction of cantonments. The above is a faint at-
tempt at a description of the four great struggles which
have occurred during this protracted season of exertion,
exposure, and suffering.

To neutralise the efforts of the rebels at mining—
" a species of offensive warfare," says Colonel Inglis,
" for the exsrcise of which our position was unfortu-
nately peculiarly situated"—and to repel their assaults,
required untiring watchfulness and determined daring
on the part of the besieged

By countermining in all directions we succeeded in de-
tecting and destroying no less than four of the enemy's
subterraneons advances towards important positions, two of
which operations were eminently successful, as on one
occasion no less than eighty of them were blown into the
air, and twenty suffered a similar fate on the second ex-
plosion. The labour, however, which devolved upon us in
making these countermines, in the absence of a body of
skilled miners, was very heavy.

The labours of all in this protracted struggle were
heavy indeed. " I can conscientiously declare my
conviction," writes Colonel Inglis, " that few troops
have ever undergone greater hardships, exposed as
they have been to a never•ceasing musketry fire and
cannonade :"

They have also experienced the alternate vicissitudes of
extreme wet and of intense heat, and that too with very
insufficient shelter from either, and in many places with.
out any shelter at all. In addition to having had to repel
real attacks, they have been exposed night and day to the
hardly less harassing false alarms which the enemy hate
been constantly raising. The insurgents have frequently
fired very heavily, sounded the advance and shouted tor
several hours together, though not a mart could be seen,
with the view, of course, of harassing our small and ex•
hausted force, in which object they succeeded, for no part
has been strong enough to allow of a portion only of the
garrison being prepared in the event of a false attack being
turned into a real one. All, therefore, had to stand to
their arms and to remain at their posts until the demonstra•
tion had ceased ; and such attacks were of almost nightly
occurrence. The whole of the officers and men have been
on duty night and day during the eighty-seven days which
the siege had lasted, up to the arrival of Sir J. Outrarn,
G.C.H. In addition to this incessant military duty, the
force has been nightly employed in repairing defences, in
maving grins, in burying dead animals, in conveying
ammunition and commissariat stores from one place to
another, and in other fatigue duties too numerous and too
trivial to enumerate here. I feel, however, that any 'old
of mine will fail to convey any adequate idea of what our
fatigue and labours have been, labours in which all ranks
and all classes—civilians, officers, and soldiers, have all
borne an equally noble part. All have together descended
into the mine, all have together handled the shovel for the