Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-12-14
DAYS of Horror.


(which way?" I inquired. IL will
show YOU" said Mr.. Lee. Again we
took seats in the carriage and started for
the climax Of desperation and diabolism.
Now we are on the way to q summer
house, called the assembly rooms,
which had been built for recreation and
pleasure 1t had two rooms, each 20 by
10, and some windowless closets, and
here were imprisoned 200 helpless peo-
pie 1t was to become the prison Of
these women and children Some Of
these sepoys got permission Of Mana
| Sahib to take one or more Of these la
dies to their own place on the promise
they should be brought back to the sum-
mer garden next morning. "A daughter
of General Wheeler was so taken and
did not return. She afterward married
the Mohammedan who had taken her
| to his tent. Some sepoys amused them
selves by thrusting children through
with bayonets and holding them up be-
fore their mothers in the summer house.
All the doors closed and the sepoys
standing guard, the crowded women
and children waited their doom for Is
days and nights amid sickness and flies
and stencil and starvation.
Then Mana Sahib heard that Have
lock was coming, and his name was
! terror to the sepoys. Lest the women
and children imprisoned in the summer
house, or assembly rooms, should be lib
Grated. he ordered that their Threats
should be cut The officers were COM
manded to do the work and attempted
il. but failed because the law of caste
would not allow the Hindoo to hold the
victims while they were being slain.
Then 100 men were ordered to fire
through the windows, but they fired
over the heads of the imprisoned ones,
and only few were killed. Then Mana
Sahib was in rage and ordered pro-
fessional butchers from among the low
est of the gypsies TO go at the work
Five of them, with hatchets and swords
and knives, began the work, but three
If them collapsed and tainted under the
ghastliness, and it was left to two
butchers to complete the slaughter
The struggle, the sharp cut, the blind
ing blow, the cleaving through scalp
and skull, the begging for life, the
death agony Of hour after hour, the
tangled limbs of the corpses, the piled
mn dead-only God and those who were
inside the summer house can ever know
The butchers came out exhausted,
thinking they had done their work. ana
the doors were closed, but when they
were again opened three women and
three BOYS were still alive. All these
were soon dispatched, and not Chris
tan or a European was left in Gavin
pur. The murderers were paid 90 cents
for each lady slain. The Mohammedan
assassins dragged by the hair the dead
bodies out Of the summer house ana
threw them into a well, by which l
stood with such feelings as you cannot
imagine. But after the mutilated bodies
had been thrown into the well the rec
ord of the scene remained in hieroglyph-
les of crimson on the floor and wall
of the slaughter house. An eyewitness
saws that as he walked in the blood was
shoe deep, and on this blood were tufts
of hair, pieces Of muslin, broken combs
fragments of pinafores, children s straw
hats. q cardcase containing curl, with
the inscription. "Ned's hair, with
love-" q few leaves of an Episcopal
prayer book; also a book entitled
Preparation For DEATH" a Bible on
the fl V leaf Of which was written, For
darling mamma, from her affectionate
daughter, Isabella Blair, both the one
who presented it and the one to whom
it was presented departed forever.
said, MIR. Lee. have heard that
indicate things were found written on
the walls" He answered, "No. but
these poor creatures wrote in charcoal
and scratched on the wall the story OF
the brutalities they had suffered.
HavelocK to the Rescue.
When the English and Scotch troops
came upon the scene, their wrath was
so great that General Neill had the
butchers arrested, and before being shot
compelled them to wipe up part Of the
floor of this place Of massacre, this be-
ing the worst Of their punishment, for
there is nothing that Hindoo so hates
as to touch blood.
When Havelock came upon the scene,
he had this order annulled. The well
was now not only full Of human bodies,
but corpses piled on the outside. The
soldiers were for many hours engaged in
covering the dead.
1t was about 8 o'clock in the evening
when 1 came upon this place in Gavin
pur The building in which the mas
! sacre took place has been torn. down and