Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-06-06
Asss GEE or y 4. YIN nc :,ssss.
Visit 20 t.ae Scene oi =. 3. he zslackess
s Crime in HUMAN HISTORY J, gss II

EOaI
t s.siity Of some l25, 900 inhabitants. iii
numerical inportanceit is only second
s. Calcutta and 3 mbay. 1t furllis hes
die railways eentering here with more
traffic than any to or three interior towns
;,lt together. Its greatest notority,
..oweyer, is associated with it's past.
Here was parpetrated what many have
| called :E:the BLACKLIST crime in human
history" the horrible Cawnpore massa-
| ere. y 4..$.5s-: .af
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 with citizen. The Memorial
Church, as the name implies, is an edi-
lice Of the State religion, erected near
the scene of the memorable resistance OF
Gen. Wheeler. The church is splen-
did European built structure, with mar
Die memorial tablets, xquislte tile floors,
and Ill the appointments Of high-toned
house of worship. Indeed, the build
ing is SO modern and elegant, without
regard to the climate, that in the sum-
mer 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
5renchment of 1857, a 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 o fire from thousands of blood
thirsty pagan foes. OF the number $50
were women and children, and only 40
men. The sutferings 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 140 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 we'll, which is still to be seen here,
in plain view of the enemy. Shot and
she'll wrought sad mischief until the 9th
of June, when the men ordered 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 We're not
sick emerged from the entrenchment
and confded themselves to the protec-
ton Of the treachero1ls Mana. It was
understood the sick should be returned
for.
The eager prisoners marched down 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 up
on them. Their boats were 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 company of 1, 900 escaped death, and
but 2Ot; women and children were left.
Among the massacred were q few Amer
leans.
These 206 women and children were
then dragged to 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 of the same Ma
ma, they were every one slaughtered
Mana had heard of Gen. Hayelock's
advance, and while he boasted 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 rescue should be
effected But even the cruel Sepoys
rebelled at the thought of such crime,
and Mama 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 an hour
and half in taking the 206'lives. They
were paid one rupee per victim, or in
American money, about $95 Jointly for
the bloody deed.
Then by order of Mana the mangled
bodies were dragged to we'll in the
Immediate vicinity, and cast down, the
dying with the dead, into it's crimson
waters fifty feet below!
1t is 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 nlerited.
When Gen. Havelock, the pious SOL
der, at length arrived at Cawnpore, and
repaired to this Assembly-roo,n, 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. The cuts on the walls
that had been made with the butchers,
knives were low down, showing how
: the poor victims had crouched
before their assailants.' In the mean
time the sick " no 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. I have talked with
men here who saw as mere boys the
forms of European women cutting open,
a bottle of gunpoWder inserted while
they were still alive, and then the whole
body blown to atoms.
Flow different is the Cawnpore Of to-
1c1-E Tr1,oao ne, %1,o& i1.,oro ~o 11or1~,