The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-06-13
MAssAcREo OF
4 Visit to the Scene Of The Blackest
Crime in Human History"

E-a. agNssmHA trrrE HaLa.a-f-w ar SIS
4 Visit to the scsns Of " The Blackezt
Crime in Human History"
Cawnpore is thriving manufacturing
'ity Of some 1875, 900 inhabitants. In
commercial Importance it is only second
o Calcutta and Bombay. It furnishes
the railways centering here with more
traffic than any to or three interior towns
pat together. Its greatest notority,
aowever, is associated with its past.
Here was perpetrated what many have
called 'sthe blacklist crime in human
history" the horrible Cawnpore massa-
ere.
I shall only review the incidents of
this massacre, which are necessary in
connection with my visitation Of the
scenes which it involved.
Early one morning after Chota Hazree,
| rode over to the Memorial Church in
company witha citizen. The Memorial
Church, as the name implies, is an edi-
flee Of the State religion, erected near
The scene of the memorable resistance of
Gen. Wheeler. The church is a SPLEEN
did Eu~ropean-built structure, with mar
BILE memorial tablets, exquisite tile floors.
and all the appointments of a lligh-toned
house of worship. Indeed, the build
ing is so modern and elegant, without
regard to the climate, that in the sum
mel it is found impossible to use it,
Summer services, by the way, COM
mence at 6 o'clock in theimorning in
this part of the country universally.
just without the church was the in
t%renchment of 1857, q miserable mud
wall about four feet high, every vestage
OF which has now disappeared. Here
1000 persons defended themselves for
twenty-five days against the hottest
kind of q fire from thousands of blood
thirsty pagan foes. OF the number $50
were women and children, and only 44O
men. The sufferings of these women
and children are almost beyond belief.
They had no shelter except such as
their %disraught male protectors could
improvise for them. The thermometer
went up to lao degrees in the shade,
and the suns rays penetrated every part
of the intrenchment. Many persisted
from sunstroke or disease. Their food
was scarcely sufficient to keep them
alive. When they wanted water they
had to risk their lives by venturing out
to q well, which is still to be seen here,
in plain view of the enemy. Shot and
shell wrought sad mischief until the 9th
of June, when the men ordered a semi
surrender, chiefly out of consideration
for the dying women and children.
The Mana Sahib, leader of the Sepoy
%mutineers, had promised to honorably
conduct the party to the Ganges, EN-
bark them, and send them down the
river in perfect safety.
Accordingly the people who were not
sick emerged from the entrenchment
and confided themselves to the protec-
ton of the treacherous Mana. 1t was
understood the sick should be returned
for.
The eager prisoners marcheddown to
the river, and embarked from the Gate
Chowra Chat. No sooner had they
been loaded upon the boats than hun
dreds of unseen natives opened fire III
on them. Their boats We're stranded.
and although they did their best to re-
turn the fire and get off, they could but
become easy victims to this, the foulest
instance of treachery on record in mill
tary history. Only three men in all
that companyo of /, 900 Escaped death, and
but POS women and children we're left.
Among the massacred werea few Amer
leans.
These 2O6 women and children were
then dragged to a building which has
gone down into history as the House of
Massacre. They were crowded into
two small rooms. twenty by ten feet in
dimensions, and kept there until July
Is, when by the order ofthe same Ma
ma. they were every one slaughtered.
Mana had heard of Gen. Havelock's
advance, and while he boosted of the
strength to vanquish him, in battle, he
gave orders that this most shocking
deed should be carried into execution,
lest by any chance a rescue should be
effected. But wen the cruel Sepoys
rebelled at the thought of such crime,
and Mana had to hire five butchers of
she city to enter the house and profess
%sionally carry out his will. This they
did. the five men consuming mn hour
and a half in taking the 2O6 lives. They
were paid one rupee per victim, OF in
American money, about $S5 jointly for
the bloody deed.
Then by order of Mana the mangled
bodies were dragged to u well in the
immediate vicinity, and cast down, the
dying with the dead, into its. crimson
waters fifty feet below
1t is a matter of regret to every SYM
pathetic traveller to know that this in
human monster soon after disappeared,
and has never since been heard from;
so that he probably escaped the punish
ment he merited.
When Gen. Havelock, the pious sol
der, at length arrived at Cawnpore. and
repaired to this Assembly-room, he
found himself just thirty-six hours too
late The floor was still nearly ankle
deep with coagulating blood, while
shreds of flesh and tufts of hair told of
the barbarous violence that had been
administered. HE cuts ON the walls
that had been made with the butchers,
knives We're low down, showing how
the poor victims had crouched
before their assailants. In the mean
time the sick who had been left behind
at the intrenchment had also been
slaughtered. There were many other
massacres in the county round about
that were as shocking, but none that
were so wholesale. l have talked with
men here who saw as mere boys the !
forms of European women cutting open,
q bottle of gunpowder inserted while
they were still alive, and then the whole
body blown to atoms.
How different is the Cawnpore of to-
day. These scenes that were SO bloody