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

foolishly expose themselVes, were shut closel;mS—one
died instantly.. I dined and breakfasted in one, at about
five o'clock, at my picquet. I was dreadfully hungry,
having had nothing to eat all day, and bard work. We
were very busy now in the trenches, countermining and -
mini,ttg the enemy, and the sth provided their quota of • .
working parties. The sepoys and city people are capital
ruiners, and if not carefully watched would do iii an
immensity of harm. In their last explosion they -blew --
np two of our poor fellows, and buried them in the
ruionns,
shu-siedlneys,wthneellitigh other.
On
we retook the mosque, coven
menno wounded o
otr.erßA. s I
was
vni,cing.
with
th
us, scattering its pieces close by, but providentially
doing us no hurt. Such escapes are vita common
.
another officer in the
t a
picketffo garden a shell burst over
garrison. An officer the other night, while sette>p, bad
his pillow cut in• two by a round shot which came in at .
1 his window without doing anybody any harm.
On Tue:dayethel3o,we provided ourselves withakhan-
earn en. This was quite an .event, as before we lived, or
rather were starving, on half rationseand piece the old man
generally manages to get something extra for us. which
makes our meals a little •more profitable. We. want
vdgetables almost more than anything, and next to that
liquor and beer. The enemy is malting a bridge of boats.
We shed it, and they move and Complete it, further down
' without further interruption. el .ise by here we found .
rooms full of china and old crockery ;
,all the crockery
was piled up on the floor, and no space left to walk nu, :
so every step you took something was destroyed.: • we ,'i
were-frequently-di4urbed by shells bursting in and near
our square, and round shot came tearing through the
upper•leck- eit, rooms, morning, noon, and night. Ain
absurd report g it efl at that Mann Sin'e, an it fluentiel
reuel outside, had offered the general sal.; cur-dart out of
t be place,,and had cousented to the-troops carrying their
side arms. I think Mr. .Matin Slog too sharp a felloiv to
send so ridiculous se message. , The answer was, of mewl,
.....4.... „ea it suited our convenience we eherild go without
a--kieg-hiethelp. This man,.at the commencement of the;
rebelficin, behaved very -well and safely escorted some
Europeans out of the bander of the 'rebel*, -but cond."-
dering himself aggrieved he
,himself turned a rebel end'.
fought- against us on that 25th, • the day we mitered
Lacknow.' He is a great landowner ill' Oucle,; and, ha_ s•&
kind of army 'of him own-; he is very wealthYeeiptlas
a large stoc: of mot ey in government-paper, ,which .I -
sh..iild not be surprised to htar was. 4 pufi-sated. News
was-brought that all our camp followers has BO from,'
Alumbagh, as they could get no food there. Sete* free. .:
pietely come in and out 'with' news of the enemy's
movements. At the cot t encenient of the siege 5,000
rupees were given to a Sepoy each tithe 'he succeeded
in taking despatches to Cawnpore. ;The usual mode
of securing the letters is wriipping,them up in quills:,
At first, I believe, they used to place letters between
the soles of their 'shoes„ but that
It
discovered, and
another and .safer plats adupted.- It `is a , dangerous
calling, thit of espionage. IteLspY ie canglit" by the
enemy, be is either:killed or tertared; They are fond of
cutting off the nose, earse, or hands of those they cap-
tote, and seeding:them back' if their guilt be proved.
If there is' not sufficient evidence against them they
sometimes ,let them go, sometimes retain them` ' for
working in their mines and trenches; so at the best it is
as unpleasant and hazai'dous undertaking. One Sepoy
contrived to make five safe trips to Cawnpore with
despa' ohm
On Saturday, the 17th, the enemy sprang .anotho -
ialiele in the picket garden, and blew in our gate, and a
8. cond at the mosque, blowing up two unfortunate sen-
tries in the Madras 'Fusiliers and .one Sikh, besides
wosruling three or four more Sikhs. 'One of the; latter
had both his arms amputated immediately afterwards,
and died eventually. Carter, one of our wounded
eifc:rs, died in hospital to-day of his wounds. It is
melancholy seeing men drop off one by one—slowly put .
seirely ; bad food, want 'of hospital
.stores and comforts
do their work,' and you watch men who were at first but
slightly wounded waste away inch by inch under a diet
hardly sufficient for a child. I' frequently go up to see
the sick.bfficers in hospital. It is a heavv'telik to cheer
t;ilein up, for we all, sick and healthy, seller mere er lers
from the same cause, and have hardly spirit buoy-
arit though ourselves to impart any cheering influence to
others ; besides, affairs until lately have borne a very
glot3Triritirpeict, with no "prospect of early re.ief ; but we
hive very much to be thankful for that a supply of pro-
visaons sufficient for the maintenance of our force was
laid in at the commencement by the foresight of ' Sir
henry Lawrence. Few ether men, I think-, would hive
acted with the same discretion and long.mightedness.
'On Sunday, Mears, our present commandant, read:the
service to the men. We formed but a small congregation
for, in addition to the killed and wounded, many were
absent from headlearters on picket duty, reducing our
numbers to about 120. Received news tkat the 93d
and 233, Queen's, were on the road between Allahabad
and Cawnpore, moving to our relief. It is said that
some petty rajahs now with the rebels are disheartened
at the news received from Delhi, and are contemplating
retiring from the struggle, if they can. Maun Sing is.
reported to be treating with the general.
.. ,
On Thursday, the 223, the enemy made an :tie,* on
Alumbagh, some three or so miles from here, where we
left some men and guns, our sick and wounded, and pro-
visions. They played at long bowls with their artillery.
The extent ~f our loss was some four elephants and a few -
Slats which their cavalry managed to cut off while
out foraging. We, on the other band, could do nothing
but hold our own. Young Birch, brother to try friend,
got wounded _on_the way here_ Ile was in-tlae Volunteer-
Cavalry, his own reginieut—cavalry—having mutinied.
'On Monday, Oct. 28, we really did hear cheering news,
td the effect that Col. Grant, of the 4th Lancers, with
one Delhi column, was on his way down here to relieve
us—that he was urgently recalled by express from Agra,
to assist in drivi-g off a large body of the enemy
threatening an attack on the place—that he made a forced
march of 27 wiles back to Agra, and while the force was
breakfas.ting the alarm was spread that they were
attacked—that he gave them a tremendous drubbing, •
and cut up a great many of the enemy—that troops were
fast gathering at Cawnpore—and that 400 men, with a
convoy of provisions, had arrived at Alumbagh.
Os Wednesday, the 28th October, we received news
that Grant bad again defeated the rebels at IVlynpoorie
arid Meerutkiserai, and that his Delhi column had ar-
rived at Cawnpore. This force consisted of a wing of
her Majesty's 52d, 250 of 9th Lancers, two troops of
Horse Artillery, two regiments of Panjaub Infantry,
and two Punjaub Cavalry. In speaking to S-----:-, of
the Madras Fusiliers, a day or two ago, I found out •
that be knew you all. Major Renaud of the same regi-
ment ho spoke about; he seems to have been a fine,
gallant fellow, and is universally well spoken of.
On Saturday, October 31, I found, much to my grief,
that my only flannel shirt was getting into holes, and I
bad none to replace it; luckily I managed to buy, from
a frieed in the • itrenchmenta, some old linen ones for
two rupees each, and some socks for about the same
prica—very, very cheap, much below the market price.
I never could have believed I could have worn the same
suit of clothes so long. It is not comfortable, as you
may imagine. When my shirt is washed I only wear
my coat, and vice verses ; before I got a second pair of
trowsers I had to remain in bed for the morning.
Yesterday (Monday, 2d November), I had another
narrow escape of being shot. I was behind a Venetian
door in a turret, with Capt. Grant, of Madras Fusiliers,
shooting at the rebels on the top of a sandbagged, loop-
hooled house, from which they were keeping up a hot
fire on our picket. While we were firing they sent in - •
several bullets, stinging us with the splinters from the
door. Grant had only just picked out some splinters
, from my neck, and was en the point of taking a shot,
' when he threw . down his rife, and said, " I'm shot I"
I took him down stairs, and laid him down till the
doctor came, who dressed his wound and extracted the
bullet. I fear from what the doctors say the wound is
-.
serious, but it is early to judge. I shall go in the even- .
ing to see him, poor fellow.
Nov. 4.—1 have little more to tell yen now, having
brought my diary down to this date. Grant, I am happy
to say, is. doing well as yet, and I am in hopes his wound
is not so bad as was at first feared. A code of signals
has been established between General Outram bud the
Commandant at Alumbagh. The whole relieving force
is ecoected to arrive at Alumbagh to-day. Its arrival
into be signalled by two
objuogans
tstosl vvtoohef ere:si
hr oewafaneegdeuohonnousdpr,
erpel
relief
enefhooa
ft
shalloLa
Luck-
now. crnbakee..
I ndi nefoarentnaotbtelhraienpr go:tittthai
position,
city.ol nf
It
the
:I nspapa fkreeewdt
sound and music that well be to us! There are rumours
ydtToseyubegu
day.—before
nhobdanel lcifyooh;reeouaptmrehr°feauutyulwril anoelacnecoakca
relievednow . Tfhroemenoeumr
garden, but were soon driven back by our fire, without
any loss on our side. Two ,pf our men while digging
in the trenches this morning in the garden,
feared, mortally wounded
Snce w
believe we have lost upwards of 300,
e aan
drve ed e r were, it is
here I
force
is
now reduced to somethin like 1,800 effective men. On
the 30th L'Estrange, ano*r captain of toe sth, died of
theh officersWounds;iswho we
onlytrwe there,
Nov. are remaining in hospital now of
S.—Nothing has occurred in the last two days
worth relating. The enemy made one of their night
attacks the night before last, but we are so accustomed
to them now that it failed to disturb us further than just
arrest the sleep of some, but not of me. I still retain
my sleeping powers. ire are getting quite accustomed
to this kind of life, and were it not for fear
of our provisions falling short should not vex
ourselves about the delay of the reinforeements. There
will be a severe fight when they come in, and a difficult
job we shall have to drive the enemy out entirely from the
city, for they are legion, and the paucity or great in-
feriority of our numbers will oblige the greatest caution
•in advancing and guarding against the second force being
hemmed in and besieged as ours, the first, is. The
engineers are busy day and night, mining and trenchiog
and getting batteries ready for our heavy siege gnus,
*bleb are to batter and shell the Saint Bagb, or new
Palace of the present King, when the time for ourreo_o;
4eration with the relieving force arrives. I d.4.7asi. sincerely
teust, on the reorganisation of our army,
uth_l.l svO .'
t Brest will not be overlooked ; it would° be, ,_°l2;;Tv.:
tat a poor return for the heroic fortintandoduigrekfting
Mary of our officers in this einfaortuip to
rd Assiffti°ginPflnert
have not shown ourselves bacvroannot swim, us oow
are
it down, and our worst enemies ir and felt
inclined
d felt incline to run
' terly cold.
getting bit et myself warm, for a long time.
this morning,
t°
r the fresh English morninge at
reminds one o
riess or apathy in
it autumn, and is very enjoyable alter the
the end of thex
walked,el. an