The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-15 00:00:00

"November 30.
"I was interrupted in my letter; as we Lai to
urn out at about two o'clock in tho t,

o,:cupy the Baptist Chapel ; we thought we should
have had a quiet day ; but just after breakfast, time
crack went the rifles in front, and in about 10
minutes the enemy's shot, shell, and grape came
pitching into and over the place in fine style. Ho w-
ever, no one was hit, as we had excellent cover.
We soon got tired of it, however ; and to our
delight, we percaived a reinforcement of the alai
coming up the road. So we fell in, in front of them,

and marched down the road for about ha'f a mile;

when we suddenly came upcn the enemy's! battery
in a most formidable position. Of course the instant
they perceived us a storm of grape, shot, shell, &e.,
opened upon us. The brigadier gave the word to
charge, and at 'em we went ; but sadly reckoned
without our host. You will imagine what a fire we
were exposed to when I tell you that we went in 14
officers and 160 men ; of the former, sever were
killed directly, and two wounded; of the latter,
only 18 killed, and 15Iwounded, so the officers were
evidently picked out. We fought at the guns for
about 10 minutes. Two were spiked—one
by Major Stirling, who rushed up to it,
sword in hand. The native gunners rushed
at us in the most ferocious manner, cutting with
their swords and ' throwing bricks. By the
latter, Captain Bowlby and I were knocked down
together but juumped up again directly, when the
devils came at us again with swords and shields. I
fired my pistol at one fellow, and I suppose I hit
him, for he did not come on. Brigadier Wilson
was killed. I was just behind him, when his horse
was struck by two balls. He was afterwards shot
through the body. However, we were regularly
beaten off, and then commenced a most terrible
retreat. The guns—six in number—and swarms of
infantry poured in a withering fire. As 1 ran to
the rear, officers and men were shot down within a
yard of me ; but I escaped by the greatest miracle.
I ran by the brigadier's side,- until his horse was hit,
which was about 20 yards'irom the muzzles, when
I passed him. Directly4n officer was down the
sepoys cut him to pieces with theiutulwars. But
just fancy 160 men charging six guns and about
1,000 Infantry I We were awfully blown in getting
up to their position, as we had to cross a deep
' nullah' and up the other side. I was one of the
first ' fortunates up—at least all the officers were
in front ; but there could not have been more than
50 men with us. We had two guns in our possession
for a few minutes ; but our supports failed us, and
then it was, ' Devil take the hindmost.' We have
been under a hot fire since the 26th. lam writing
\
this from our outer trench, and the shot and shell
are flying about from both sides. However, we are
quite safe, and haven't had a casualty since we
entered the trenches. The sepoys occupy the ad-
jacent ruins, and as they cut from one to the other
we pot them. They bad. done themselves up with
' bang' yesterday, intending to rush at us with their
swords, but the brutes funked it after all. It was
a dreadful sight to see the poor officers being cut
up. They were all round me, but by the g West
mercy I was not touched. I lost my sword belt,
scabbard, pistol, and keys (which were attached to
the scabbard). Whether the whole apparatus was
cut away by a shot or no, I don't know.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that in the first
day's fight I tumbled into a burning limekiln,
but didn't get hurt a bit, although I lost one of my
pistols. One of the pool. fellows (Gibbons, 52d) who
was afterwards killed at the charge on the guns,
rushed in after me, but I scrambled out by myself.
We caught a spy or sepoy this morning, and didn't
we blow his brains out ! I net er could have be-
lieved that one could get so accustomed to firing ;
but I can assure you that one pays no more atten-
tion
to ' wh'stling Dick' going by than one would
to a b't of paper. In the gun Scrimmage my
e? at
and sword were splashed all over with blood.
For-
tunately the same night that we fell back upon the
entrenchments Sir Colin's force came in from Luck-
now ; for ,we were getting wiser hard pressed.
The-e Gwaliors that are fighting now are some
20,000 strong, and the natives bre joining them
every ciay. They had 40 guns or so at.the beginning
of the row ; but now they have lost some to us.
This trench business is harassing work. We have
been four days and four nights without taking our
things off. There is a ruined bungalow about 400
yards off full of sepoys. The brutes some ins( sfi e
into us in the middle of the night, and the general
won't let us make a rush and drive them out.
They shelled our hospital the other day'
. and I be-
lieve wounded some of the patients. The ladies
and children have
arrived from Lueknow ; but I
don't think they are in the entrenchment yet. Gen.
Havelock died of dysentery, and Gen N sill was shot