The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-29 00:00:00

g e time, for the sake of humanity, and the honour bably after enduring so much rain, more than the
of the country they belong to, he calls upon them ordinary difficulties embarrassed his march ; and on
to spare all women and children that may come in
one occasion at least his advance was impeded by

their way.
4" It is so imperative, not only for their safety, ;
but for the success of the assault, that men should
not straggle from their column, that the Major-
General feels it his duty to direct all commanding '
officers to impress this strictly upon their men, and
he is confident that, after this warning, the men's
good sense and discipline will induce them to obey
their officers and keep steady to their duty. It is
to be explained to every regiment that indiscrimi-
nate plunder will not be allowed ; that prize agents
have been appointed, by whom all captured pro-
perty will be collected and sold, to be divided, ac-
cording to the rules and regulations on this head,
fairly among the men engaged ; and that any man
found guilty of having concealed captured property
will be made to restore it, and will forfeit all claims
to the general prize ; he will also be likely tobe made
over to the Provost-Marshal, to be summarily dealt
with. The Major-General calls upon the officers of
the force to lend their zealous and efficient co-ope-
ration in the erection of the works of the siege now
about to be commenced. He looks especially to the
regimental officers, of all grades, to impress upon
their men that to work in the trenches during a
siege is as necessary and honourable as to fight in
the ranks during a battle. He will hold all officers
responsible for their utmost being done to carry
out the directions of the engineers, and he confi-
dently trusts that all will exhibit a healthy and
hearty spirit of emulation and zeal, from which he
has no doubt that the happiest results will follow,
in the brilliant termination of all their labours."
"On the morning of the 14th, soon after day-
break, the assault took place- The attacking co-
lumns were—as I gather from a letter that I have
seen—written on the following day byitu officer of
rank in the army, which, though short, is, as far as
1 I know, the only communication of so late a sate
that has yet reached Bombay—three it number,
1 one being held, as I understand it, in reserve.
Their strength is not given. The main point of as-
sault was the breach at the Cashmere bastion. Oue
column, however, consisting of Ghoorkas and the
newly arrived Junnnoo contingent, was directed to
make a diversion by attacking the Sishengunge
suburb, which lies outside the Lahore gate on the
western side of the city, and, if it succeeded in
carrying the suburb to assault the gate itself. But
the suburb was occupied by the enemy in force,
with a battery of heavy guns.. * The Cashmerian
troops behaved indifferently, and in spite of the
efforts of the brave Ghoorkas the column was re-

an armed force, or bis progress hindered by the
necessity of chastising it. A party, estimated by its
subsequent destroyer at about 300 strong, with a
few guns (the number is not mentioned), crossed
the Ganges from Oude, presumably for the purpose
of plunder, at a point aheaA of Sir James'S line of
march. As soon as they were heard of Major Eyre,
of old Affghan and recent Arrah celebrity, was sent
on with part of his own battery, detachments of
the sth and 64th Foot, and a troop of irregular
horse, to attack and disperse them. On the major's
approach the enemy hastily betook themselves to
their boats, pursued by the cavalry, upon whom,
when they had re•embarked, they kept up a smart
fire. Even when the infantry came up and poured
volley after volley into the crowded boats,the rebels
still made what defence and return they could, but
when the field-pieces opened with grape they threw
themselves into the river, to perish almost to a man
under the fire of all arms that rained upon them
from the bank. The boats were sunk and the guns
with them. This was on the 10th September. On
the 15th, the head-quarters of the sth Fusiliers and
.the remainder of the 78th Highlanders reached
Cawnpore, and Sir James, with the rest of the force,
being inspected on the following day, orders were
given by General Havelock to prepare to commence
the crossing of the river at half-past 2 the next
morning, This I know from a private letter from one
of the officers of the 78th, and nothing, so far as I
am aware, has arrived from Cainpore &red to lead
us to suppose that counter orders were subsequently
issued, and that the crossing was delayed. But
when the Calcutta steamer for Suez called at Madras
three days ago, Lord Harris, as the result of the in-
formation broughtto him by that vessel, telegraphed
to the Bombay Government thus—" General
Havelock's force crossed the Gangesfrom Cawnpore
on the 19th ; skirmishing was going on"—a message
which, I must think, might have been made a little
fuller and more explicit. It is possible, though I
hope it is not true, that -the crossing did not take
place till the 19th, or it may be that on that day
the operation was completed which was begun three
days earlier, for the stream was running like a mill-
race, and there were 24-pounders and elephants to
be got over. But the word " skirmishing" inade-
quately, as we may fear, represents the amount of

pulsed. Its commanding officer, Major Reid, of the
Sirmoor battalion, is among the wounded of the
day ; but on the northern side of the city all went
well. The troops entered at the breach with no seri-
ous opposition, and spreading to the left and right
occupied the " whole line of defences from the Water
bastion to the Cabul gate, including the Cashmere
gate and bastion, the Moree gate and bastion, the
English church, Skinner's house, and the grounds
about." The principal loss sustained by the assail-
ants was due to the obstinate resistance they met

resistance encountered by histroops. Certain it is at
least that the enemy were in great strength, and oc-
cupied an intrenched position on the opposite bank.
A few days before the 15th a small steamer, moored
off Cawnpore, was sent out to cruise in the riverend
reconnoitre. While so engaged she got aground.
The - enemy at once opened fire upon Ler, and
turned out, as was discernible through the glasses
of the officers on the other side, marching down
the bank in a regular column, that betrayed their
former profession, wearing their belts and pouches,

with in clearing their way along the ramparts to
the Cabal gate, and afterwards in an attempt to
penetrate beyond that point into the denser parts
of the city in the direction of the Jumna Musjid.
In all the loss amounted to about 500 killed and
wounded. Five officers are reported- to have been
slain—Tandy, of the Bengal Engineer; M‘Barnet,
of the late 55th N.I. ; Murray, of the Guides;
Bradshaw, of the 52d Foot ; and Fitzgerald, of
' the 57th. Captain Rosse, of the Carabinsers, Major
Jacob, of the Ist Bengal Fusiliers, and Lieutenant
Homfray, Ist Punjab Infantry, are returned as
having died of wounds received. Brigadier Nichol-
son was wounded, and his brother, of Coke's
Rifles, and4many others—in all about 30. Of the
less of the mutineers I do not observe even an
estimate. It is only said that bodies of them were
seen to be retreating both to the south of the city in
the direction of Kootub, and also across the bridge
of boats, and that our cavalry had moved round the
city to intercept and destroy the former. Our vic-
torious infantry, prudently recalled from too hasty
an advance into the close lanes of the city, occupied
, the comparatively open space inside the Cashmere
gate, and the walls which they had won upon either
side of it. Head-quarters were established in the
house once occupied by the renowned Itregular
Horseman, Skinner, and noyr
known to us by has
name, to the natives as Seamy:lee is. Preparatons
were at once made for shelling the enemy out of the
Palace, the Selimghur, and the other strong places
1 of the city, and the firing commenced next morn-
ing, the 15th. By the eTeningof that day a breach
was effected in the wail of the magazine enclosure,
which was held in force by the enemy, and the
place was stormed- the next morning by the 61st
not, and detachments of the Beelooch battalion
and Wilcie's Rifles. In it were captured 125 pieces
of cannon. The Palace being now well exposed the
guns and mortars opened upon it from the maga-
zine enclosure, and the enemy appears to have
fallen back at all points. Thus the Kishengunge
battery, which had repulsed the Jummoo troops,
was abandoned and occupied, and the guns there
taken swelled the total number of captured pieces
to upwards of 200. The battery on the further side
of the river seems also to have been abandoned, and
at the date of the last certain and official news-7
p.m. on the 16th—au attack upon the magazine had
been repulsed, a chain of posts had been established
from the Cabul gate to the magazine, and the
enemy some hours before dayfall had been maintain-
ing only a detached and desultory warfare from the
tops of the houses. Many townspeople had come in
and received quarter, which was of course refused
to every Sepoy. All this is so satisfactory that we
may well credit the tale from Jeypore, that on the
20th the place was entirely in our hands. But I
shall keep this letter open to the last in the hope of
fuller intelligence, as a steamer is just in from Kur-
rachee, where Mr. Frere was keeping ready for an
emergency, and.which he would not have despatched
unless be had something worth sending. I must
not omit, by the way, to mention that the Jeypore
report asserts—though I do not assert it—that the
King of Delhi escaped to a neighbouring shrine in
the disguise of a woman. Scindia, it is moreover
reported, was raising 15,000 men to intercept fugi-
tives.
" To the north-west of Delhi, is the Hurrianah
district, Gen. Van Cortlandt is still busy repres-
sing disturbance and resettling the country. On the
6th of September an insurgent village near Hansi
was surprised and its occupants driven out and dis-
persed, with the loss of one of -the ringleaders in
the mutiny of the Hurrianah battalion and 25 of
his men. I read, too, of what appears to be the
destruction of another village at a later date, when
a number of the mutinied 10th Cavalry fell, and
several prisoners, formerly of the same regiment,
were forthwith executed. On this occasion a large
amount of booty in horses, cattle, and money fell
into the hands of the General's men. From Meerut
we do not hear of any more raids against insurgent
chiefs, nor does our news from Agra report any
further proceedings on the part of Major Montgo-
mery since his very successful engagement at Hat-
tress with Ghose Mahorned Khan, the self-styled
1 Soubandar of the King of Delhi, which I mentioned.
in my last, and which appears to have quieted the
country about Allyghur. Indeed, our intelligence
from Agra is well-nigh contained in the single an-
nouncement of the death of Mr. Colvin, Lieut.-
1 Governor of the North-West Province, on the oth
Sept. This eminent, and at the commencement
servant
isuoc f-
I the outbreak, most popular public
cumbed to an attack of dysentery, a disease to the
growth of which the confined limits of the crowded
fort must have been only too favourable. .e.r.
Reale, the senior civil re: vent present, assumed
temporary charge of the Government upon tie death
of his chid. Oe the other side of the Doab, two

though not the red uniform. The bank on the
Cawnpore side being higher than the other, their
proceedings were easily observed, and a few shots
were thrown at them from the 24-pounders, but
without Producing any effect—indeedi. without
reaching across the river. Eventually the stesuier
got off and returned uninjured. Meanwhile, of the
imprisoned garrison of Lui,know we have heard but
very little. That little, however, is all encourag-
ing, though vague. They had undermined and
blown up a house near the entrenchment, with a
number of fanatics who occupied it, and then sally-
ing out had spiked the two 18-pounder guns which
the enemy had brought to bear upon them, though
without doing much damage. Of the amount of
provisions we hear nothing one way or the other.
On the whole, I may repeet that we know of nothing
tendingto destroy, or even materially to affect, the
confidentlopes which, when I last wrote, were so
generally entertained, not only on this side of India,
but also at Cawnpore and Allahabad, that this rongr
beleagureti city will be relieved in time to save
many valuable lives and the honour of English-
women and of the English name.
"By this time there is little doubt that CAptain
Peel, with the naval brigade, has reached Allaha-
bad, though we have not yet heari of his arrival.
At Calcutta considerable reinforcements have Ar-
rived—the rest of the China force, the 23d, 93d,
and 82d ; the Penelope with 200 artillery from the
Cape, and the Sanspareil with two companies of
the same corps from Hong Kong. From the capi-
tal to Allahabad the country on both sides of the
river appears to be perfectly quiet again. What
has become of the mutineersfrom Dinapore and
Ramghur seems far from clear. Some accounts had
represented them to be moving upwards towards
Agra by way of Banda. o.hers stated that their
main body, under Kooer Singh, had turned south-
ward from Banda towards the Rewah territories ;
others again, that being warned. off by the Rajah
of Rewah, they had skirted his country and meved
down into Bundelcund. This last account may be,
perhaps, the true one. If not, it is only the mere
rumour of their approach that bas caused the mu-
tiny of the 50th Bengal Native Infantry at Nagode,
in that province ; for this regiment, which has re-
mained quiet so long, has gone at last. Its batter
temper, however, and better discipline stood by it
we may perhaps say, unless it was were caprice, to
a certain extent, even to the end. Before dismis-
sing their officere which they did without attempt-
ing violence, they allowed them to blow up the
magazine, to destroy some spare muskets, and to
spike the two or three guns that were at the sta-
tion. They then moved off—perhaps in search of
Kooer Singh-=after destroying the public buildings,
while the officers retired to Jubbulpore. But the
contagion of disaffection reached that station also.
The corps quartered there was the 52d Native
Infantry, which, like the 50th, had never hitherto
shown any signs of ill-feeling. But about this
time it was discovered that a plot was ha' ch-
ing, in which some of the Sepoys and many
of the loose population of the town were con-
cerned, to break open the gaol and release cer-
tain prisoners lately confined there. This scheme
was frustrated. Shortly afterwards an old chi ,f of
one of the neighbouring Gond clans was arrested on
suspicion of instigating an attack upon the Euro-
peans and their property, and being convicted was
blown from a gun, his son suffering with him for the
same crime. A little while longer and the 52d
mutinied, taking advantage of the slattered condi-
tion of the Madras col imn, which was stationed at
intervals between Jubbulpore and Satigor, keeping
open the road, and was in no great strength at the
former station. Their mutiny had in it something
of originality. They dismissed all their, officers but
one, Lieut. Macgregor, whom. they retained as a
hostage for the safety of their comrades in the two
companies that were in advance with the head-quar-
ters of the Madras column under Gen. Millie at
Dumoh. This little arrangement they explliced in
a respectful letter written either to Gen. Millar or
to their own commanding officer (the latter I think,
but am not quits sure, as I have only heard of the
letter, not seen it), in which they sail that in leav-
ing cantonments they by no means considered that
they were quitting the service of the Sircar ;
that they remained, and proposed to continua to
remain, true and goad servants of the Government :
but that they had heard and believed that the Si -
car intended to destroy them, and had brought in
the Madrasees -for that purpose. Hence they
thought it better to withdraw till the Sircar eh at!Li
be more properly and kindly disposed towards
them. They were taking away the Sircat's arms
and ammunition, it was true, but, then, had they
not left all their own property behind, with which
the Sircar might indemnify itself t And so the re.i-
-! mweernet
with
Generalrichedoff, allm ilblaurt, twhehotmwothce General fel th-
companies whseli
with cleverly and quietly disarmed.. But the
effect of all this is very bad. It may test us for a
time the whole of the Senor territories north cf
the Nebradda. The Bundelas are up in reeewed
spirits. General Millar attacked a b3dy of them,
and slew 80 without the loss of a man. But ano-
ther party defeated a sally from the fort of Ban-
gor, killing Colonel. Mizell, of the late 42d, who
headed isa and several men. The Madras column
abandons Dainoli and conclntra`os itself for ihe
protection of Jubbulpore. If, as in spite of their
remarkable letter may be arricipate I, the 52d join
the Bundelas in etreneeh, the column may have to
raeross the Nebrudda. °lf Kooer Singh comes delve
it must ; but I hope and think t'.at when tidings
of the fill of Delhi have w.l! fi:tered through the
country many a now formidable-looking bend of
marauders will be diss'petecl even more rapidly
than it was formed.
"Farther to the north and west, in the great
province of Maiwa, things are looking sufficiently
well. I have already alluded to the report of
Scindia's raising new levies to intercept fugitives
from Delhi. A bet`er from an officer at Indere,
just received, les before me, -Upon
information
which he considers reliable, be w!itse, that on the
25th, and for five days previous, S;:in,lis. and t' e
mutinied Contingent were at Galio-, face to hire,
each seeking to coerce the other, The Maharajah