The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-13 00:00:00

OVERLAND MAIL.

INDIA AND CHINA.
We have received, by Extraordinary Express,
our usual letters and papers in anticipation of the
Overland Mail.
The following is the letter of the Times' Cal-
cutta correspondent :
"CALCUTTA, DEC. 10.
" The present mail carries home the greatest
calamity and the greatest victory of this most
disastrous war. On the 25th November Sir H.
Havelock died at the Alumbagh. On the 7th of
December Sir Colin Campbell utterly defeated
14,000 mutineers. Although one is, of course,
inclined to describe these events by themselves,
it is perhaps better to adhere to the chronological
sequence of the narrative. 1 left Sir C. Camp-
bell just arrived at the Residency. It appears
that his victories, though terribly destructive to
the enemy, were achieved with comparatively
slight loss to ourselves-600 is said to have been
the total loss in killed and wounded in the three
great assaults. The enemy, however, notwith-

standing these victories, still numbered 60,000
fighting men, still show no symptom of retreat,

still showed a determination to defend the city

proper street by street. To attack them was to
sacrifice a force already reduced and risk the ne-
cessity of a third relief. The Commander-in-
Chief, therefore, encumbered with women and
children, sick and wounded, determined to evacu-
ate Lucinow. Accordingly, on the 22d of No

vember, the whole of the garrison, the State pri-
soners, and. the treasure were withdrawn 'in the
presence of the whole force of Oude.' Many of
the guns were destroyed, the remainder were car-

riedoff, and then the Residency, the scene o:

such terrible suffering and such haroic endurance,
was abandoned to the enemy. They did not ven-

ture to oppose the evacuation, but they harassed

the retreat, and I am told made an attack upon

the force just outside Lucknow. No particulars
are known, but the attack must have been re-
pulsed, for on Nov. 24 Sir Colin reached the
Alumbagh. Here he halted for several hours, col-
lecting his scattered forces and arranging for the
permanent defence of the position ; and here he sus-
tained a loss which in India has spread universal

gloom, and in England will cloud the great victory
of Cawnpore. Sir Henry Havelock, worn out
with fatigue, exposure, and mental suffering, ex-

pired at the Alumbagh on the 25th of November.

How he died no one in Bengal yet knows. Accord-

ing to one account, his toil never remitted, how-
ever his health might be impaired, brought on an

attack of acute dyeontery.

According to another

his death was the effect of wounds received in

action. The Government has published no par-
touters, and has noticed him only at the tail of a
General Order 'about the garrison. No private
inquiries are of any use, for the Commander-in-
Chief has very properly seized the telegraph, and
will suffer nothing to pass but his own messages to
the Governor-General.
" The deceased General has been a prominent
character in Indian history for nearly 20 years.
He was one of the few who passed through the
Afghan campaigns withaddiaLeputation. In the
first Punjab war he was Lord Hardinge's most
trusted friend. A slight spare man, about 5 feet
5 inches in height, with an emaciated face and an
eagle eye, he belonged emphatically to the class
who have never to contend with disobedience or
mutiny. As a General he was the best tactician
we have had in India ; and as an officer, 'though
stern and sometimes exacting, his antique heroism
made him the idol of his men. He was, indeed,
perhaps the bravest man in his own army, and was
never so chatty or agreeable as under fire. Like
most of our Indian statesmen and soldiers, the
Lawrences, ]tdwardes, Nieholson, Montgomery,
and many others, he was a Christian of the old
stamp—a strong Good-fearing Puritan man, who
thought often in scriptural phrase, and deemed it
no shame to teach his soldiers to pray. Turn
out the saints,' said Lord Gough on one occasion
when he anticipated desperate work ; Havelock
never blunders, and his men are never drunk.'
The loss created a most painful impression
in Calcutta. We are all a little hardened
here. We have seen so many Generals fall,
have been so accustomed to misfortune,
have learnt so completely to expect misma-
nagement, that nothing moves us now. Yet
even here a Government telegram announcing,
`All going on well at Alumbagh ; General Have-
lock died two days ago,' excites a little disgust.
The press dare not complain under penalty of con-
fiscation, but the public voice is pretty audible.
We have now but two Generals left in whom the
public have any confidence whatever—Sir Colin
Campbell and Brigadier Cotton, of Peshawur.
Should an accident happen to the former, who has
a habit of placing himself in the hottest of the
fire, our prospects will be poor indeed, Neill is
dead, and Wilson, of Delhi, is sick unto death,
Sir Henry Havelock we are now mourning, Sir
James Outram would not supply his place, General
Windham is under a cloud, Sir Hugh Rose is
wanted at Bombay, and the many young men
equal to the occasion have not sufficient rank.
"On the 26th Nov. the Commander-in-Chief,
leaving 3,500 men at the A.lumbagh under Sir J.
Outran, continued his march towards Cawnpore.
It was unexpectedly accelerated by a disaster
wLich even yet is only partially explained. On
the 26th Nov. Gen. Windham, loft in command
at Cawnpore, heard of the advance of the Gwalior
mutineers. These men have been hovering about
C tlpee for months, obviously afraid to advance, yet
aware of the advantage of detaining troops at a
distance from Lucknow. Kid they advanced with
their splendid park of artiVery a fortnight before
Cawnpore must have been lost for the time, and
the relief of Lucknow would have been all but
impossible. At last they moved, the first division,
some 3,000 strong, advancing to the Pandoo,
within eight miles of Cawnpore. On the 26th Gen.
Windham attacked them, and after a combat of
an hour and a half dispersed them. Pursuit was
impossible without cavalry, but three of the four
guns with the division were captured. We lost
only some 57 men. The Gwalior men, however,
were in no degree disheartened. They attacked
our camp on the following day, carried off all
our tents, and the British troops retired int)
the iniirenchments.' There they were evidently
besieged, for on the following day the enemy
attacked the intrenchmeuts from the canal and the
Subaaar's tank. A sortie made against the as-
sailants from the canal was most successful ; the
Rifles beat back the rebels, and brought in two
of their 18-pounder guns. The fire of the rebels
from the Subadar tank was also quite silenced,
bnt our extreme right and her Majesty's 64th
Regiment suffered very severely.' In other private
accounts it is statisd that the affair was a surprise,
and the retreat on the hatrenchments very sharp
Work. The 64th and 88th were terribly
cut up.
re
The former lost four officers, and two more were
taken prisoners. One of them, I am told, was
hung, and the other slowly beaten to death by the
mutineers "with shoes." Brigadier Wilson Was
among the slain. On the 29th Sir C. Campbell,
whaled fortunately heard the firing, pressed on
his'enctimbered force with such rapidity that he
,ijacolled'43-miles in 31 hours. Leaving all en-
etnebraneez on the Oude side of the river he
"°lli4ci end after a brief but decisive engagement
swept the enemy out of their position in front of
the intrenchments, and captured 16 guns. With
the judgment he has everywhere displayed he at-
tempted no pursuit. Quietly keeping the enemy
at with his heavy guns, he crossed the whole
of the sick and, wounded, women, and children
into Cawupore. Thence, under a sufficient escort,
they were forwarded to Allahabad, where they
arrived in safety on Dec. 7, after six months of
hardships such as I hope Englishwomen will
never again in this age be called upon to
sustain. These preparations occupied some dayi,
hut by the 6th of Dec. the Commander-in-Chief
was ready for the attack. It began at 11 o'cloell.
The enemy was first apparently shelled out of t e
native town, and then attacked with the riff .
The-loss of the mutineers was fearful, and the
whole army, 14,000 strong, fled in utter con-