The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-05 00:00:00

LUCKNOW.

Tie following letter is from a civilian in Luck-
now.:—

" Michee Bhuau Fort, Lucknow, fuly G.
"Pressed by want of food and fuel, and reduced
to the last extremity, a sortie was made on the 2d
inst., in the direction of the enemy's camp. Their
advanced guard Was taken by surprise and utterly
routed, after two hours' .cleseefate fighting. A con-
siderable quantity of provisions fell into the hands
of our troops. This successful operation Was con-
ducted in pers. n by our gallant and noble chief,
Sir H. Lawrence, at the . head of 2 )0 Europeans,
chiefly her Majesty's 32i Foot. Returniiig from
the scene of action flushed with victory, and bear-
ing the proceeds of their h ,rd fieht for the relief of
the poor sufferers in the fort, just as our troops
reached the-town. the native artillery who accom-
panied the expedition suddenly wheeled round and
opened a deadly flee from the guns on the unfor-
tunate 32d, and I regfet t say that before. they
were able to recover thems-Ives and face their as-
sailants, upwards of 60 men, rank and file,- wesie
.killed and several of our beet ::'officers seVerely-
wounded—amon, the officers our gallant general,
who was severely cut in the le,l by the splinter of
a shell,' and died this dty at 4 o'clock of lock-jaw
.induced by the wound.- The following officers'
names I have been able to colleA who were wound-
ed in the sortie and sulasequ!,nt attack by the mis-
creant traitors :—Major Case (since dead), Major
Bell, Captains Lawrence, .Cook, Wainwright,
and Moore • Lreu•enants M'Cabe, Brackenbury,
Browne, dill, and Charlton. We have been
obliged to retire from the lines defending the town
and to abandon our strong positions in consequence
of these sad casual!ie,, and to fall back upon this
old fort, which we have very strongly entrenched,
and shell be able to-resist the enemy so long as we
have provisions, which are expected fully to last
(of course on a famine scale of distribution) fur five
weeks ; but we must not agam venture beyond the
walls, except it be to make one final and desperate
attempt to cut through the hordes of villains and
thousands of well disciplined native troops drawn
ttise
l.the number
up ac phi
en smt
ousst inp
afuregular
coonrsdi
(el
er
r?,ft
ibo
nt
of ladies and woman and helpless people who have
fled for protection to the fort, and are now here.
Upwards of 200 of these poor creatures are cram-
med into this. narrow place, where it is impossible
to describe their sufferings. llea'Er would be in-
deed a happy release !o many of them, and it is
enough to melt the heart of the hardeit soldier to
witness their cruel privations, while it is wonderful
at the same time to see the patience and fortitude
with which they are enabled t ) endure the un-
paralleled misery of their position."

MUTINY AT INDORE.
The following are extracts from the private
,etter of ani officer present during the mutiny at

.ndore on th;3 Ist of July :
" A little after 8 a.m. on the Ist, Holkar sud.

denly attacked us at Indore. The artillery (nine-
pounder?, procured for him by the Governor-
General's agent) and his infantry opened. They
were pow eeby the opium godown. The miscreants
cut down a number of poor telegraph people and
dosed us with a supply of our own grape, furnished
them from Miaow. My only eava'ry at the mo-
ment available were a .few always kept saddled in
the square of the stable yard ; the others, being in
the Mehidpore u-tvalry lines, were in a measure cut
off, and required time to saddle and come round.
The Mehidpore infantry were neutral, and cur own
(Bhopal) nearly in as bad a stale. To strike a
Mow, and an effectual one, was of the greatest im-
portance, and in doing this not a moment -was to
be lost. Placing myself at tLe head of the few
cavalry ready, though not properly formed, I led
them against both the grins and infantry supporting
each other, at first with something less than 20
men ; the affair seemed almost hopeless, but our
only chance. As I cast my eye back and found
only six or seven following me, and not in good•
order, much as i despise the Mahratt73 as soldiers,
I saw we could not by an3r- Wit t -wake an im-
pression. Still, at it I went—to dr' 'iv rein or turn
after giving the order to charge was too much
roPs
against the grain. I came in for a large share of
their most polite attention. My horse was
wounded in -three places ;- I had to parry a sabre
cut with the back of my sword, but God, in His
great mercy protected me, and the dastardly
gunner 3 threw themselves under their guns. Had
I 30 or 40 good Sowers at the time, with their
hearts in the right place, I would have,saptured
their three guns, and havecut their 200 infantry to
pieces, but what could half a-dozen do against so
many ? The foe then moved into the plain in front of
the flower garden, to. blaze into the Residency. I

instantly moved up and attacked with my 2 gnus,
the Subandar Sewlale and the gunners behaving
nobly, and drove them back, disabling, apparently,
one of their guns.
" The rest of my cavalry now came up, asking to
be led to the charge. but I could find no bugler,
nor could I get the men into proper order. They
seemed uncertain whom to trust, who were friends
or who foes, and to lead them on as they then
were would have been destruction.
They would
have been taken in flank by Holkar's numerous
cavalry and overtlirown. My infantry was re-
ported in a state of mutiny, so it was all up.
decided upon retreating, drawing
off the
children and ladies before we were completely sur-
rounded. Althoogh we could have held the Resi-
dency for a few hours longer, we h b ould have been
unable to withdraw the poor helpless women and
children, many of whom had to be put upon the
gun limbers and waggons as all Holkar's force was
pouring out of the city, and the rascals also. I
covered the retreat with the cavalry, and wo made
for Mundlaisir, via Simrole Ghat, but we found
that Holkar (anticipating such a _move, from strong
posts well provisioned having been formed there by
--) had sent out during the night a very superior
force to occupy the Ghats and oppose us in all pos-
sible ways ; and as our cavalry, without saying so,
seemed not to relish leaving their families thus, and
facing such strong posts, we decided -it best to
change our route ; but delay would be death, and
we had to continue our march until we left the
Maghoghur pass behind us, for had that been oc-
cupied we should have been in difficulties. Even
then we could only ha't for an hour or so, as Scin-
diah anti Holkar being one we had tn look out for
the Tuppa Pass. Atla.it that was got over, men
and cattle done up, the poor ladies and children
bearing up wonderfully, or better than that ; at
Koorlee we rested fur three hours and then pushed
on for Ash.a,' which we reached yesterday, 3d.
How the weaker portion stood so much is wonder-
ful. _ _ _

" July 8.
" A. large party left for Hussinghabad a
few days ago. TLe Begum (Bhopal) has clearly
told us that the whole of India is now at enmity
with us, that our remaining here is a source
of weakness lo her, and endangers the State
and her ; we have, therefore, no option but tr) de-
part for Hussingliabad, taking with as much of the
contingent as choose to go, which will be few. The
remaind-r I leave here in charge of the Begum,
and we trust to retain the contingent thus, who
are angels in comparison. I lo.t everything at
[ndore, as did every one. To say my heart is heavy
is no word for it, but what can be done l Matters
sae indeed horrible. The sth Infantry, Gwalior
Contingent, murdered Dr. and Mrs. James, and
Lieuten-int and Adjutant O'Dowd ; the others,
with a large party, are coming this way. Terrible
rain,and so many poor women and young children
expsed night and day to it."