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

then getting into order again, the other regiments came
up and passed us, and thus we lost our original
position in the field. A little higher up the road another
road crossed us diagonally : we turned down to the right,
and were opposed by a tremendous fire of musketry from
its further end, where the enemy was swarming. The
Major gave the order : "Fire two volleys by sections
into the middle of- them ;" but before we had time to see
the effect produced, we were ordered to retreat into ti

garden on our left (this place was called the Char Bagh
foe gardens). --- ardens). I rode up---74 was then a little behind
the IVlajor—and repeated the order to 'him, and just
twined my horse's head towards the garden, when a
round shot came and knocked the poor brute over and
killed three men close by me. I had not time to remove
anything off his back, the enemy was too close and the
fire too heavy, and though several men came up and
volunteered to fetch me my saddle, I could not allow
them to risk their lives. As we entered the garden the
; enemy's artillery opened upon us from the left extremity
of this cross-road with grape and shell, and so well did
they pitch their shells that they burst immediately over
the gate we entered by killing and wouading many.
We marched through the garden, clearing it as we went
along, and then skirmished along that side commanding
the canal and a view of its opposite aide. It seas dan-
gerous to show your head over the wall, and our riflemen
had to take advantage of any little piece of cover, to
enable them to take steady aim. We worked on our
way gradually, and came out a little on this, i. e., the
Alumbagh, side of the canal bridge, and had the testis_
faction of seeing some heavy guns of the enemy cap-
tured. They had built up very strong batteries protect-
ing the bridge, and of. such solidity were their bream-
works that'our artillery could have made but, little
pression on them, our only-resource was to charge them
at the point of the bayonet. This was gallantly done
by the Madras Fusiliers. The 90th—a regiment in the
second brigade—charged and .captured the gun at the
left extremity of the cross-roads whioh sheltered as.
We halted to take breath and get into order again at
the bridge, for about a quarter of an hour, when we
again advanced, turning to the right, and kept along
the banks of the canal. We worked our way along
slowly, clearing the neighbouring villages as well as
our time would admit ; this we did but imperfectly,
ovine to our want of troops and time. The halts too
were frequent to enable us to keep together. In one
small village we passed through we found anine-pounder
brass gun, limber and ammunition complete, the horses
standing by ready harnessed, which the enemy had left
behind, being, I suppose, too hard pressed by us to take
off. While we stopped here I amused myself by catch-
ing pigeons. After some time we emerged into the open,
and of a sudden the order was given to the sth " to
charge the gun." It was up the road I knew, but where-
abouts exactly I did not see. However, away we went,
done up as we were by several hours' hard work in the
grilling sun—our pace, as you may imagine, not very
rapid—until we sighted the gun (a long tease native
made ore), mounted on a carriage, and deserted. At
the corner of the road was a group of cavalry, supposed
to be protecting their gun, looking in astonishment
our boldness ; but they hardly waited for a vo ley when
they boite,,and we saw nothing more of them. A. scat-
tered fire was still kept up at us by the enemy, who were
occupying the street on our left, and if I recollect right,
a gun also opened upon us. Here we halted and got
under shelter, till the other regiments came up, when
the houses right and left of the street were broken ante
and many men shot and bayonetted. %Ye captured the
regimental colours—very Pretty ones and well embroi-
dered—of the 6th Oude Irregular Infantry. The rebels
1 ad on most occasions fonght against us under our Own
colours, which they plundered at the time of the mutiny.
I was sorry to see my friend W— limping about here,
and found he had been wounded in two places. \Ve
found a g Had deal of sugar cane, which we peeled and
ate, and most refreshing it was to us. The last charge,
we all felt at every step we took as if we could not take
another to save our lives, but we went tumbling on with
our ii.ouths open, as dry as bones. Tois, you must
remember, was a cloudless day in September, the hottest
and certainly most depressing month iuAbe year, and
just at the breaking up of the rains ; do.l-after the last
tyro or tbree days' ,nolmsant rain the exhalation from the
ground was very heavy, and rendered it doubly oppres-
sive.

On wo went again, and our neat halt was in fell sight
of the splendid palace of Lucknow, the mosques, and
other fine buildings. On the road we passed ties cavalry
stables, where hundreds of horses were picketed. I got
permission to provide myself with one to replace my own
killed : so, with Creagb, of the sth, I left the cslumn for
a time, and went and selected one. It was a fine strong
artillery bores, but unfortunately without a bridle, so of
no present use to me. We saw some dismantled heavy
guns lying about there, and a company of ours sent there
to survey and clear the place of the enemy, if there hap-
pened to he any, reported that there was a quantity of
treasure lying in different places ; but such was our
headlong speed that guns, horses, and treasure were all
left behind, for the subsequent use of the enemy. This
halting-place was a very danger 3tlS one, the shelter very
insufficient; and we remained exposed to heavy artillery
and musketry fire. The round shot came in numbera,
smashing through the walls close by us, and the frequent
crack of the musket from loop-holed walls and windows
of houses close by, and the whirr of the bullet, t ii us
too plainly that our position was not very tenable. To
our right there was a large house supposed to be occupied
by the enemy. We were ordered to take it • and hold
it. To get to it, it was necessary to cross a small open
space. This we did one by one at the double, every
man as he doubled feeling the dang'er to which he was
exposed. Toe bullets fr do a house opposite—the old
mess-house of her Majesty's 321—e hizzeil over and
about us by hundreds, and it regularly running tin
gauntlet through a hailstorm of bullets. Several men
and horses were killed and wounded here, but there was
no hesitation MI our side, and the brave fellsws filled
through this as willingly as if they had been in their
then hungry state going to a sumptuous banquet. We
took the house of course as ordered, and immediately
sent out skirmishing parties right, left, and front, to keep
off the enemy. The house was situate in the middle of a
garden, and at the end of which on one side was a canal
over which the enemy was firing. About three o'clock,
I suppose it must have been (my watch's mainspring was
broken, worn out, and so rendered useless), we left this
place, and after charging another on under an immensely
heavy cross-fire across a small bridge, where again we
sustained a heavy/108m, we found our elves between rows
of houses with loopholed walls, being quietly picked off
by unseen hands. Here several gallant fellows were
killed and wounded, and it was melancholy work seeing
the piece strewn with the dead and dying, wiih no
visible enemy to make answerable for our Ips. This
street and house fighting went on till dusk, and it would
be tedious to narrate all that occurred. At one place,
in particular, just as we turned a corner into an open
square, surrounded by high walls, where the artillery
were drawn up, and the 84th was in the act of passing
through an archway in column (we were close behind
them), a murderous Ire was opened from these loop-
holed houses on our men, and poor Thigadier•General
Neill was shot dead off his horse. The men seemed
seized with a fit of fury for the time ; they left their
ranks and fire) a volley against those walls wits the
forlorn hope that some stray bullet might enter the
loop-holes and kill the cowards sheltered behind. When
order was restored, we commenced passing through.
It was a horrid business, and it was getting dark, which
made it worse. You could see the fi ',sties from the
loop-holes just over your heads as you moved on an d
felt powerless, for we were unable to stop their firing
or drive them from their stronghold. It was quite dark
before our work was over, and we slept that night
without food or drink (except the rations of grog and
I rum), or covering of any kind in the road leading into
the garrison. We gave and received three cheers from
the people inside, and that was the only proof that
night we had of each other's existence. It was a
terrible day altogether, and one I shall not easily forget.
We slept well after our fatigues. We lost that day 600
odd men killed and wounded, and 48 officers—no small
proportion out of a force of 2,400, a loss in proportion
equal to that sustained in the Battle of Waterloo. An
unfortunate accident occurred in the road that evening.
Some faithful sepoys of the 13th, who had been fighting
in the trenches nearly all the siege with our people,
were sent out with a European officer to assist in
some work further down the road. Some two or
three of them, in threading their way through the laby-
rinth of gun-carriages, bullocks, and men, got separated
from their officer, and the alarm was instantly raised
that some of the enemy's Sepoys were in our line, and
the order was given by the brigadier to stop them: how-
ever, they unsuspectingly went on, when the order to
shoot or bayonet them was passed. Three of these poor
fellows were instantly shot and bayoneted—one man I
saw with no less than three bayonet wounds and one
sword cut on the upper part of his body. The officer,
hearing some confusion, instantly returned, and saw the
unhappy mistake. It was a sickening sight. I saw the
man who was the worst wounded some days afterwards
in the hospital, and was glad to find he was doing well,
and in a fair way to recovery. It was impruden Ind
the excited state of our troops, and at night, too, to send
the Sepoys into our neighbourhood, when 4 was well
known that we were surrounded on all sides by the
enemy, who at that time were firing upon our outpickets
and sentries. All that night there was only
a wall be-
tween us and the rebels, and we did not feel safe against
a sudden attack.
On Saturday morning, the 26th, we were ordereiltoouldt
again, and had to retrace our steps to the h
you we took yesterday afternoon, near which our artil-
lery and baggage, with some of the 90th, had o
been left.
There were some places we had to pass much exposed
to the enemy's fire, and which it was necessary to double
over, to get as quickly as possible through the shower of
bullets. We had to ford a canal up to eur middle in the
water, and afforded a nice mark to the enemy's riflemen
during this tedious operation. Several men were wounded
before we reached the house, when we sent out some men
to reinforce the 90th, and held the house the whole of
the day. The enemy bad brought two heavy guns to
bear upon the house from opposite directions, and as we
came smashingk
.
were sitting inside,24andlBlvbe.
rn
shotine
walla,
knocking O
but enviable. Bullets,
too,mcaamtuegwhoiuzr.
position
h anythingte
zing about from all sides, and we had Plenty to do from
the house to keep down the enemy's fire from neigh-
bouring mosques and houses. One of their guns was
near the palace, not more than 700 or 800 yards off ; we
saw the men Sponging it and loading, .so knew when it