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

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 16, 1858.

THE LEAGUER OF LUCKNOW-HAVE-
LOCK'S LAST MARCE.

The following is the letter of a young subaltern
officer in the East India Company's service, who
served on the staff of one of her Majesty's regiments;
engaged, under Sir H. Havelock, in the first at-
tempted relief of Lucknow, and was subsequently
detained in the Residency until Sir Colin Camp-
bell joined the garrison :

LUCKNOW, Ocr. 21.
I am afraid, before you can possibly receive this
letter, you will have suffered much painful anxiety
on my behalf, the more so as, in addition to my
not having been able to write by the last three
mails, the news which you must have received from
India can have been but gloomy and sad. lam
writing now, not because I see any chance for some
time to comelof despatching my letter, but so that I
may be in readiness in case of unforeseen opportu-
nity occurring. This is the first day since our
arrival here that I have had pen, ink, and paper at
my disposal, or I should have begun long ago to
give you an account of our doings since I last wrote
you from Cawnpore, previous to our crossing the
river, en rout. to the relief of our besieged friends
in Lucknow. You will have received official intel-
ligence that our object was effected, how it was
effected, and at what a tremendous loss to our
brave fellows. Thank God, I escaped unhurt
through the whole fighting, and am now in the
enjoyment of as good health as ever. At present
I will only give you an outline of our doings since
wo left Cawnpore on the 19th September.
On Saturday, the 19th, we left Cawnpore, with
the idea that no time was to be lost in reaching
Lucknow, lest we should be too late to relieve our
unfortunate countrymen. We were roused from
our sleep in barracks about 2.30 by the reveillee,
and were soon all dressed and ready for a start.
We marched to the bridge of boats, built some two
miles off, for the purpose of crossing, by our engi-
neers, and there met the other regiments composing
the Oude field force. The passage with the artillery
and cavalry took some hours, and the sun was well
up and hot before we had formed up on the other
side. The enemy were firing at us with their guns
the whole time, but with, little. damage, and did
not succeed for a moment in hindering our cross-
ing. The sth Fusiliers, Madras Fusiliers, and
84th Foot, with Major Eyre's battery, formed
the Ist brigade, commanded by Brigadier-Gene-
ral Neill. When the whole force, numbering
2,500, had crossed and taken up their position,
a few companies were sent out from the differ-
ent
regiments to skirmish over a large tract of
hilly ground, where the enemy was ; the re-
mainder of the sth was drawn up in line, in re-
serve. The enemy was playing upon us with
a heavy gun from a battery exactly opposite
us, not more than 600 or 700 yards distant, I
should say. I WAS on horseback, with Major
Simmons, standing to the right of the line, when
the first round shot came over our beads with a
tremendous hiss. They were allowed to fire four
rounds at us, when they were getting so uncom-
fortably close that we •rdered our men to lie down,
drew up our guns, and silenced their battery ; un-
luckily, before we could get up to take their gun,
they had harnessed the horses and absconded with
it. We advaticed after a time in support of the
skirmishers, who were driving the enemy from
their sandhills. After a couple of hours' fighting
the halt was sounded, and we lay in a burning
sand on a plain without any shelter for some time
before the few tents for the men came up. I left
Cawnpore feeling very unwell, having had an at-
tack of fever while there, owing, I think, to expo-
sure to the sun on the march from Allahabad,
while protecting, or rather looking after the bag-
gage, and I felt so weak that I was doubtful at
ono time whether I should be able to go on ; how-
ever, it was better I did go, as it turned out,
for the excitement did me great good, and, ex-
cept for my weakness, I felt quite convalescent
and jolly. The first day and night I lived in a
dhoolie, a light palanquin for carrying the sick and
wounded.

Tue next day, Sunday, the 20th, was a halt.
Our volunteer cavalry went out reconnoitring, and
came across the enemy's camp, and got fired upon.
Nona of us were allowed to take tents with us (a few
were provided for the men, and only one for all the
nTeers of each regiment). On Sunday night the
rain came down
1,111,1110, pud. ov o..auaped the
ground that I awoke in a regular puddle, and slept
in one, well too, till the morning.
At seven o'clock, Monday morning, the 21st, we
commenced our march on the Lucknow road. We
could not have gone a mile when the enemy opened
a heavy artillery fire upon us. The guns—Eyre's
battery—which we were protecting were immedi-
ately of dered to the front, and two companies of
the sth, thrown out in skirmishing order, protected
the guns right and left of the road on an open
plain. The rain was pouring down continuously,
and our men were lying down in a regular swamp.
Simmons, the major, Haig, the adjutant, and my-
self, were all together, on the left, and the only
mounted officers. The major sent me several times
across the road with orders to the officer command-
ing the right party. This was not a very safe duty,
as had to pass our artillery, and the guns of the
enemy werelprincipally directed against ours, but I
was mercifully preserved from all danger. The
major always employed me as a kind of aide-de-
camp. Not having a company to command, and
being mounted, it was the best way of making me
of any service. While the battle was going on
between the guns on the right, the other regiments
and guns were busily employed on the left. The
enemy had guns posted in villages on the left, and
opened an enfilading fire upon our troops as they
advanced in line and column. The slope of heavy
ground on which the enemy had taken up position
it was our business to dispossess them of, so
skirmishers were thrown out, and a good brisk fire
ensued. In the meantime our skirmishers, by ad-
vancing up the gentle slope, outflanked the
batteries which were firing upon our right down the
road. This manoeuvre—more, I think, than our
firing--caused them to horse their guns and take
them away. Our practice, however good it might
have been with round shot, could not have done
much harm to the enemy, from the nature of the
defences they had raised in front of their batteries.
With shelling it was different, but we could not
guess even at their lose, they take great
pains to remove their dead and wounded. Some
few headless trunks and others terribly shattered
by round shot we passed on the road ; these
were probably left behind in the hurry of retreat.
We were rather amused at one time during the
fight by a little coincidence which occurred on our
right. A large body of the enemy's cavalry were
threatening us, and looked as if they intended to
descend on our guns and a small handful of irregular
cavalry substituted by them. Eyre turned one of
his 8-inch howitzer; and sent a couple of shells
right into the middle of them, and took them quite
by surprise, for immediately upon the shell burst-
ing they commenced a most precipitate retreat,
amidst roars of laughter from our men. When the
enemy's fire ()eased we advanced up the road, and
found their batteries empty; they had built a strong
breast-work across the road, which took us some
time to level, to enable our guns to pass. They were
flanked on their right by a small clump of houses,
but o n the left by a long, low, loopholed mud wall.
Their position was capitally chosen, and fairly con-
tested, but they cannot wait for the British bayonet,
and as they see our line steadily advancing,
,they as
steadily and surely retreat. We went on that day
marching till dark, the rain continuing to pour
down in torrents, and got shelter in a very dirty
gunj, two long rows of low buildings—a kind of
market-place, in fact—which had been vacated by
the natives. Our cavalry pursued the enemy almost
up to this place, and cut up a good many. This
battle was fought at a place called Mangiwarra, a
small insignificant place, about two miles from the
bridge. On the road, further on, we found a few
cartloads of the enemy's grain, a few tents and
camels. We took some of their guns, but not all ;
their horse batteries they managed to take away
with them. The first thing after seeing all the men
and ourselves housed was to inquire for our kitmat-
gars, with a view to get some dinner ; but what was
our dismay to hear them say that all our provisions
were behind in the mess-cart, and that orders had
been given to admit no carts within the gunj. we
immediately sent out foragers, but with no suc-
cess, and we had the pleasant prospect of going
without anything to eat, having only taken a light
breakfast before we started, and feeling ravenous.
Had it not been for Captain L—'s corned beef I
don't know what we should have done.

• On Tuesday, the 22d, we commenced our march
in a pouring rain, with our wet clothes on. All my
coolies, carrying our luggage, had run away during
the night, and I could not by any means get any
more. The general told us before leaving Cawn-
pore to bring as little as we could, as we should be
back again in fifteen days. We marched the whole
of that day in an incessant and drenching rain, saw
nothing of the enemy, and merely took a few pri-
soners. We passed a very strongly fortified posi-
tion on the road, where we expected to meet with