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

THE LYDIAN MUTINIES.

THE DEFENCE OF BENARES.
The following interesting letter is written by the
son of Major Peddie, of Stirling :
Benares, August 21, 185-7.
Dear Mother,—l have just received. four news-
papers from papa, but no letters this time, so that
some of those black blackguards must have got
hold of them. I hope this will reach you, as no
doubt you are quite anxious enough already ere
this time. We are safer here in Benares (or at
least as safe) as in Calcutta or London. We have
been throwing up entrenchments, which might
almost be called fortifications, they are so strong.
As there were no military engineers here, I had,
by request of Brigadier Gordon, commanding, to
commence and carry on the works, and managed
to throw them up at a rate that rather astonished
the old Indians hereabouts. They have given me
no end of praise. The works are now in charge
of two military engineers, who arrived the other
day from Calcutta, but it is more than probable
they will have to move on in a day or two, and
then I will be " Commander-in-Chief" again. The
-works are on a high isolated mound, bounded on
three sides by the rivers Ganges and Burna, the
banks of which are precipitous, the fourth side has
been defended by 24-pounder, 18-pounder, 12-
pounder, and 6-pounder batteries, witk three 10-
inch mortars. These batteries command the river,
the city of Benares, and the approaches to the
-works. Provisions for 500 men have been already
stored, sufficient to last for one and a half years.
Barracks are being erected, and as there is one
main position, with two lines of outworks, the
place can be defended by either 400 or 5,000 men,
as in the event of our having only the first number,
tie outworks could be given up, and yet the
enemy would gain no advantage thereby. The
only fear now is that they will not come near us, as
they know our strength. We have had some beau-
tiful practice with the guns and mortars. The en-
trenchments are at present occupied with 200 of the
37th (Queen's) and about 800 of the faithful Sikhs
—they are men that refused to join with the rest of
their regiment on the night of the mutiny here.
They are fine fellows ; one of them saved his colo-
nel's life. We have also 40 men of the Madras
Artillery. In the event of a row all the troops
(about 400) would come down from the station,
which is 3l miles distant. There is so little danger
here now that none of the troops are detained on
their way from Calcutta, but pushed on at one
towards Cawnpore and Lucknow. I went out the
other night with 250 men, and two guns that were
sent along the Grand Trunk Road to intercept the
Dinapore mutineers, but they heard of our coming
and bolted across the country, where the guns could
not follow them quick enough, so we missed them.
All the railway works are at a complete stand still
for the present. But we will soon be pushing them
on again. Ano'her two months will settle all this
part of the country as far up as Futtehpore. The
Delhi business will take longer, as it is such a dis-
tance for troops to march. The accounts from Delhi
this morning are good—the mutineers' powder
manufactory, with 50 artificers, has been blown up.
I bad a lot of the sth Fusiliers up here during the
other day—they were on their way to Allahabad.
I find I must close, as the bags will close in a few
minutes. I have scrawled th;s in great baste. As
the arrival of the papers was the first intimation I
bad of the Bombay line being open, I had not cal-
culated on being able to send you a line this time."