The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 29, 1857.

enemy's that day ; several officers were killed and wounded,
among the latter our commandant, Daly, shut through the
shoulder. He is doing well, however. Kennedy, of our
cavalry, too, has since been shot through the leg and
stomach ; he is also doing well, but he had a narrow escape.
On the morning after the last fight the mutineers again
came out to try the same plan as the evening before, but
the lesson we had had made us wiser, and we marched out
in capital order. The enemy, seeing this, immediately
began to retire, and tried to draw us on into some broken
ground. This, however, they did not succeed in, and, as
they kept retiring from place to place, our horse artillery
punished them a good deal. Finding they could do no
good that day, they wisely retired, and we returned to camp.
No loss on our side.—lb.

Upon the 23rd of June the battle was long and
well contested, and at one time our troops were in a

highly critical position. The supply of ammunition
failed, but the sepoy proved himself no match for
the European at close quarters :
I was with the Guides on the right, and from sunrise to
past sunset we fought altogether fifteen hours, without
anything to eat and only water to drink. We managed to
bola our own well, nevertheless, till about one o'clock, and
killed an immense number of the mutineers ; but at one
o'clock an immense reinforcement came to the assistance
of the opposite party, and we had enough to do to hold our
own. I twice fired away every shot we had, nearly 100
rounds per man, and had sent back for more ammunition.
The men I sent came back with the fearful news there
was no more ; to leave the position was contrary to all
orders, so we had to do our best by pretending to fire and
keeping the post with the bayonet. All this time we were
under a perfect hailstorm of bullets, round shot, and shell,
for the enemy bad brought some of their light field guns
round, and were playing with great effect on our reduced
numbers. I certainly thought we should all be done for,
when, by the greatest go‘ s.l luck, a part of the regiment of
Sikhs that had that very mcrning marched into camp came
up with a yell to our assistance ; they were fresh men, and
had lots of ammunition, so we rushed on and drove the
enemy back. At the same time we were ordered to advance
as far as we could ; this we did, and drove the enemy
back into the city, after which, as they did not seem
inclined to come out again, we retired, it being past
sunset.—lb.

An officer writes from Meerut, June 18, and gives
us some notion of the feeling which animates the
British soldier :

Our batteries are playing on the city and palace of
Delhi. The sickness inside is awful; they have their
dead and wounded all together, and the stench is frightful,
even outside. Two European deserters were cut down at
the guns. One had dyed his face, but he called for mercy
in English, and was in a thousand pieces in a minute.
Martial law has been declared, and we hang six or so
every evening, most of them the butchers who were en-
gaged in the affray, and had assisted here in murder and
plunder. I rode out this morning to see the bungalows,
and found nothing but heaps of bricks and rubbish. Every
bungalow here nearly was burnt, and some people lost, I
dare say, 6,000 or 10,000 rupees—carriages, horses, fur-
niture, everything gone. The moment the sepoys here
broke out, thousands of villagers swarmed in, and carried
off everything. I could write volumes, but horror and
disgust stop me. It makes me sick at heart to think of
having to trust native regiments again. This is a strange
feature in my Indian career. Bitterly have we been
taught that, if we teach our servants to fight and then go
to sleep, they are sure to rebel. We hsve learnt how
India must be ruled at the cost of many lives and the suf-
ferings of poor helpless women and children. By God's
mercy it is no worse ; and our arms have been successful
on every occasion, notwithstanding the numbers are to the
sepoys about one to ten. We have a large force at Delhi,
and the Delhi people are dispirited at finding that, though
they attack us by sorties day and night, still on every occa-
sion it only decreases their numbers by hundreds. Our
troops are as jolly as possible, and each man is mad to
have his thrust at these devils—and such thrusts ! One
man the other day bayoneted two men at once against a
wall; he sent a foot of the barrel into the first man, and
bent it like a corkscrew. Thp bayonet is here. Various
have been the feats of strength and bravery. One man
shot four men out of five who were coming to attack him,
and who loaded and fired at hilt as they advanced; but he
was a rifleman, and had lite Minis. The natives cannot
understand how their men drop at such an immense dis-
tance. They are very fine fellows, the 60th, as indeed are
all the English soldiers. Ten of our English cavalry
disperse 5,000 of the villagers. The feeling in the country
is in our favour, and the people relish but little what the
sepoys do, which is plunder and murder. Naturally
enough, agriculturists have little to gain and everything to
lose by such acts.

An officer, writing from Meerut, happily gives us
a more favourable picture of the state of affairs there
than we could have reasonably anticipated. We
appear to be in some force, but the general (Hewitt)
was " awfully cautious." He has since, we learn by
telegraph, been superseded :
Meerut, June 9.6.
Our great safety lies with the Sikhs and Ghoorkas. The
mutineers in Delhi came out the other day to fight, and
some hundred of them, seeing a party of Sikhs cooking,
threw aside their arms and said, " Come to us ; we ale
your brothers." The Sikhs said nothing, but when the
mutineers came up killed every one. The Ghoorkas hate
behaved like Englishmen. Wuen they advanced to the
charge the mutineers called out, " e respect you; come
to us." " We are coming," said the Ohoorkas, and they

did come. They fought like devils. We have lost many
men, I regret to say. We have fortified ourselves here,
and are expecting an attack from about 2,000 mutineers.
We have here about 700 men to guard the place, and shall
meet them just outside the station with about 300 or 400
men—all we can spare, as we have barracks and many
women to protect. We are ready, and have always been,
day and night. Pickets out on all sides—guns, &c., and
cavalry, as many as we have. We lie down ready for an
alarm. When Delhi is taken, headquarters will be here.
Two moveable calumns will be formed here, as troops are
assembling down the country. However, in the field we
can easily thrash them ; the walls of Delhi alone have
kept them alive and together. Our bayonets are all
powerful; it seems as if nothing could stand against
them. In spite of the times, we still drive out every
evening on the course ; but it will be some time before
any one (except a man well mounted and armed) will be
able to travel at all. There have been schemes for volun-
teers here going out, in which 1 have joined, of course,
but in vain. The general here is so awfully cautious. I
am on picket duty every other night, and twice a week for
twenty-four hours, day and night. The men are on duty
every night, and are hard worked ; horses saddled day and
night in case of an attack. We have some of the 130th
Rifles and artillery recruits, who, though not drilled, are
stanch fighters, and some of them old soldiers. We have
our orders in case of an attack, and each one knows his
position and can reach it in a minute. We have a very
formidable little place here, with bastions, &c., complete
heavy and light guns, and a hundre•l volunteers to man
the walls. They little expect how we are prepared for
them if they do come. My belief is they will go to Delhi;
but if not, as I said befcre, we shall not wait for them, hut
go out to meet them, while they will expect us crowded in
our fortifications. They must be different from all the
other mutineers, and we very different from all the other
English, if we do not give them a thorough beating, and
perhaps get their treasure (eight laws of rupees). The
fortifications must only be our last resource, as they ate
too small to hold every one. The natives in the bazaar
(the worst characters we have) are as humble and quiet
now as possible, end seem terrified at us. We have hung
and flogged so many that they see they cannot ci mmit
atrocities unpunished. The mail goes such a roundabout
way from here (the ordinary route not being open) that
must send this oft• at once. The country is all up.
An officer, writing from Allahabad, anticipates an
affair of campaigns:—
This is certainly, and will, from all appearance, be a
tedious campaign; for, besides the straits we are reduced
to, the bad weather is setting in—viz., the rains. I am
regularly rationed like a common soldier, get a loaf of
bread, a pint of beer, a little sugar and milk, and a small
piece of mutton, besides tea twice a day, spirits and beer
only once, as also the mutton, for tea is given out at night,
but, as several of us have been living together, we have
managed to get on very fairly. Oude is now the head.
quarters of the rebels. Every single regiment has n- uti-
nied, and the country will have to be taken a second
time, but this time by force of arms. The brave Sir
Harry Lawrence has manfully defended the residency
against the insurgents, but if assistance is not rendered
him, and the people who have taken refuge within its
walls, amounting to several hundreds, they will be all
starved out, for from the last aecuunts they have been
obliged to teed on grain and sugar. They have next to
nothing to cook it with, and no pots of any sort to cook it
in. It is reported that a detachment of the 84th, the
Queen's, who went over there from Cawnpore the other
day, have been cut down to a man, but this has not been
confirmed. There are thousands upon thousands of
natives assembled there, and assistance will have to come
quickly, or not a European will be saved. There is a
force of 500 Europeans and a detachment of my present
corps going over to Cawnpore most likely on Tuesday
morning, and most likely I shall go with them; at least, I
hope and trust it may be my good luck to be able to.
These are stirring times. They are hanging men up at
Benares and here.
The cruelties committed by the rebels are "beyond
belief." A letter from Allahabad says :
The cruelties committed by the wretches exceed all
belief. They took fortreight females, most of theni girls
from ten to fourteen, many delicately.nurtured ladies—
violated them, and kept them for the base purposes of the
heeds of the insurrection for a whole week. At the end of
that time they made them strip themselves, and gave them
up to the lowest of the people, to abase in broad daylight
in the streets of Delhi. They then commenced the work
of torturing them to death, cutting off their breasts,
fingers, and noses, and leaving them to die. One lady
was three days dying. They fdiyed the face of another
lady and made her walk naked thri.n.th the street. Poor
Mrs —, the wife of an officer of the Regiment, at
Meerut, was soon expecting her confinement. They
violated her, then ripped her up, and, taking from her the
unborn child, cast it and her into the flames. No Euro•
peen man, woman, or child has had the slightest mercy
show them. l do not. believe that the world ever wit-
nessed more hellish torments than have been inflicted on
our poor fellow•countrywomen. At Allahabad they have
rivalled the atrocities of Delhi. I really cannot tell you the
fearful cruelties these demons have been guilty of—cutting
off the fingers and toes of little children, joint by joint, in
sight of their parents, who were reserved for similar treat•
meat afterwards.
Colonel Neile is now hard at work getting his force
together to move on to the assistance of Cawnpore and
Lucknow, both places being in the greatest danger, for all
the sepoys that have run away are now gathering around
Lucknow. Our reports concerning that city and Cawnpore
are most gloomy, but reports in this country and at this
time are always against us. You can have no idea of the
awful weather and of our sufferings from the heat; we sit