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

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.