The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-26 00:00:00

THB INDIAN MUTINIES.

(FRoM A CIVIL SEIIVANT.)
ALTAAHABAD, JUNE 28.
Here I am well and safe, thanks be to God, who
has met cifully preserved me and others from a cruel
fate which has overtaken many of our dear friend".
We have had a trying ilm.e of it, but, as far ca
Allababal is concerned, all is well, for we have a
large force of European so ldiers, who would fight
and beat off all creation if necessary, and which
is being daily increased by reinforcements coming up
from Calcutta. We have been so bewildered lately
that I have lost all recollection of dates and of when
I last wrote to you. We were incarcerated in that
horrid fort from the 6th to the 18th of this month,
and a fearful time we had of it. God grant that I
=ay never pass such a time again ! Better to die
by tate sword fighting than to see such sights of hor-
ror and pass such a time of anxiety. I do not think
that I told you in my last letter of the treachery of
the 6th Native Infantry, or of the fearful night of
the 6th of June. I can hardly write it, so sad and
miserable is the story. God, in His infinite mercy,
preserved me from a dreadful death at the hands of
the bloodthirsty Sepoys. I told you in my last let-
ter that we were apprehensive of an outbreak on
the part of the city people, and that I had taken up
a position at the gaol ready to make a at tnd ; that
the officers of the 6th Native Infantry had all con-
fidence in their men, though we had not, for now
no cue can trust those wretched natives. Well,
matters went on quietly enough till Friday, the
sth, when news of the disturbance at Benares came
up, with a report that a number of the insurgents
were on their way to attack this station. On the
BIM. day an order came from the Brigadier at
Casa upore to "man the fort with every available
European, and make a good stand." We non-mili-
tary men were instantly ordered into the fort,
being formed into a pailitia under the orders of the
officer commanding the garrison. We slept in
the fort on that Friday, the sth, doing duty upon
the ramparts, and returned to the station the
following morning, but only for the morning,
going into the fort again in the afternoon.
At this time we had in the fort about
30 invalid tirtiltery soldiers, some few commissariat
and magazine sergeants, and we volunteers muster-
ing above 100 men. There were also 400 Sikhs and
80 of the wretched 6th guarding the main gate. A
great number of the European merchants and half-
castes remained outside, believing the report to be
only the cry of " wolf," and supposing it to be a
false alarm. The report of the approach of the in-
surgents was false ;, but, alas ! would that the poor
creatures had taken advice and joined us in the fort.
Among those outside were poor Capt. Birch, the
Fort Adjutant, a married man, poor fellow, with a
family-; Innes, the executive engineer, who had
the previous day resignted Iris appointment in the
fort from ill-health, and had gone up to his bunga-
low. My poor dear friend, 'Alexander, of the Irre-
gulars, was in a garden =near the fort with 150 of
his troopers. Two guns, -under Harward, of the
Ar illery, had been sent down to the river to guard
the bridge of boats over the Ganges towards Beuaras.
Hicks, of the 6th Native Infantry, and two little
grills were also stationed there in charge of two
companies of that regiment.f. Well, all these poor
fel'ows were out and we were inside the fort,
through the mercy of the Almighty. We were told
off on our guard and had laid ourselves down on
our beds (those who were not on watch), when,
about half-past 9, we heard firing in the station,
and on the alarm bugle being sounded we ran up
to the ramparts in breathless silence. The firing
grew heavier, and we all thought that the insur-
ge .ts had entered the station, and were being beaten
oft by the regiment. So steady was the musketry,
re; ular file firing ; on, on, it continued, volley after
volley. " Oh,' we all said, " those gallant Sepoys
are beating off the rebels,', for the firing grew fainter
in the distance, as if they were driving a force out
of the station. But before long the sad truth was
known. Harward rode in bringing tidings that
the Sepoys had risen, had seized his guns, and had
marched them up to the station. He had escaped,
and had run up to poor Alexander's camp, who
jumped on his horse and rode towards the lines,
with as many of his men as could be got ready ; he
ha I been caught in an ambush by a body of the
SedoYs lying in wait in an empty tank, and
had been killed by a musket being placed to his
side, blowing out. his heart. His, poor body was
br ugbt in later in the night, and I gave his hand
a last shake, and shed tears over his last bed.
The officers were at mess when the wretches
sounded the alarm bugle to bring them to the pa-
rade. and shot them down right and left ! Wretched
murderers, may they receive their reward ! Nine
poor little ensigns doing ticluty with the regiment
were bayoneted to death in the mess-room, and
threw of the officers who escaped heard their cries
as they passed Poor boys, who had never given
offence to any native, nor caused dissatisfaction to
the Sepoy-. Five officers were shot belonging to
the regiment, besides the nine poor boys. Birch
and Innes, with the sergeant-major, in all 17 mi-
lit try men, many merchants, and others were most

cruelly butchered—in all 50 Europeans fell that
night by the hands of the murderous Sepoys. The
Treasury was plundered, the prisoner; releasei
fri m gaol, and the work of destruction commenced.
The whole station was destroyed, house after house
plundered and fired. What a night Each moment
we expected the Sikhs would turn on us, and then !
. . . . But the Almighty mercifully decreed
otherwise. We disarmed the 6th guard, at the
main gate, and found the villains with loaded and
clapped muskets, ready to turn out!
What an escape we bad ! Five officers came in,
all having escaped in a wonderful maner—three
naked, having had to swim the Gauges. We wore
all night under arms, and in the morning lay down
on our cots sad and weary, each moment expecting
to be called up. The streets of the city are about
hell a mile from the fort, and during the four or
five following days troops of the rioters were to be
sten rushing from place to place plundering and
burning. Day and night we manned the ramparts
in the hot blazing sun, and day and night the guns
a.d mortars belched forth, throwing shell and
grapeshot, tearing down houses, and scattering the
demons wherever they were seen.
- We dared not leave the fort, for who knows what
the Sikhs would have done if it hadbeea left empty?
However, let us not breathe one word of suspicion
against them, for they behaved splendidly, though
tl ey are regular devils. We lived on in this way
till the Madras Fusiliers came up and then our fun
began. We "volunteers" were parted off into divi-
sions, three in number, and your humble servant
was promoted to the rank of one, the "Flagstaff
Division," with 30 railroad men under his com-
mand, right good stout fellows, every one of whom
bad been plundered, and were consequently as
bloodthirsty as any demons need be. We sallied
heel several times with the Sikhs into the city, and
had several skirmishes in the streets, whets we
spared no one. We had several volleys poured into
us, but their firing was so wild that their bullets
passed over and around us harmlessly. The flag-
staff was always to the front, and they were so
d ring and reckless that the " flagstaff boys" be-
e: me a byword in the fort. Every rascality that was
p.)rformed was put down to them, and in the end
the volunteers got a bad name for plundering. The
Sikhs were great hands at it, and, in spite of all
precaution, brought a great amount of property
in o the fort. Such scenes of drunkenness I never
b. held. Sikhs were to be seen drunk on duty on
the ramparts, unable to bold their muskets. No
one could blame them, for they are such jolly,
jc,vial fellows, so different from oth-r Sepoya.
When we could once get out of the felt we were
all over the place, cutting down all natives who
ele.wed any sign of opposition ; we enjoyed these
hips very much, so pleasant it was to get out of
that horrid fort for a few hours. One trip I en-
joyed amazingly ; we got on board a steamer with
a gen, while the Sikhs and Fusiliers marched up to
tl e city ; we steamed up. throwing shot right and
left, till we got up to the bad places, when we went
os-i shore and peppered away with our guns, my
• double-Larrel that I brought out bringing down
niggers, so thirsty for vengeance was I. We
ed. the places right and left, and the flames shot
UP tne heavens as they spread, fanned by the breeze,
B l "ling that day. of verigean,:e had fallen on
the treachereeir •
'lle Wicked villains.
iv4ving two
out? had marchcel out on the
and a Mussulman had set km-
self up in the
Kiev; of Delhi, nnYdeclalilii.og himself the agent of the
to
ralng on all natives, Hindoos
13 lid true believers,
La any poor fellowa who sere tree Europeans, and
tb hiding fell into
I. s hands and were murde:eten
At last, whsn reinfereerrients
came up we all
f the c:ty,
11Zieeleata/vuet
niarcheddrove the insurgents o,t 0 , •
t-ok possession of it and the station, *II
remained ever since in the collector'
0 of us ; others are in the pucka
briuses that were not burnt ; and the Feanier
and
V9th (Queen's) in the church.
Every day we have had expeditions to burn and
destroy disaffected village', and we have taken our
• venge.
I have been appointed chief of a commission for
t e trial of all natives charged with offences against
Government and persons ; day by day we lithe
strung up eight and ten men. We have the power
t,f life and death in our hands, and I assure you
we spire not. A very summary trial is all that
takes place ; the condemned culprit is placed under
at tree with a rope round his neck on the top of a
carriage, and when it is pulled away off he swings.
All is now well and quiet, but where smiling
homes once existed are now only blackened walls
bed desolation. Mye old house is in ruins—it had
just been repaired for me—and my little house into
which I had moved for a sea..on is in the same