The Weekly Gazette for Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool and Cleveland District. — 1879-08-02 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

KOLAPOB.E.  ATTACKING THE MUTINEERS AT  The entrance to the garrison to be attacked was a series of strung teak doors, about six feet in height, against which huge blocks of stone had been placed, rendering the defence almost as solid as massive masonry. In the absence of guns, Kerr and his trusty follower Gumpuat set to work with crow bars to force a passage, and notwithstanding the fire of the e-etny—a band of thirty. four decier.tdoes, whose bands were red with the blood of the murdered officers, and who knew that, if captured, no mercy would be shown them—aneeeeded in making an opening large enough for a man to crawl in alone on hands and knees. Kerr took the lead, Gumpunt followed, and then came the other sixteen, all resolute and fearless, though certain death seemed to await them at the end of the passage as each should step forth into the preiseuee of the enemy, of whose strength and resources, they were ignorant. As they emerged, twenty bepoys fired a volley, which would have swept them all off to a man, had not Kerr, with singular presence of mind, enjoined his men to follow his exampl and drop into a stooping posture, The bullets whizzed over their heads, and befoie the &pop had time to re-load the besiegers whore upon them sword in baud. A desperate struggle ensued, several of the enemy were slain, and the remainder, notwithstanding their superiority in force and arms, were orced to fly. They escaped into a loop-holed house, where they could fire upon the stormers ; but the opportunity to do so was not allowed them long. Kerr caused a qoantity of h y and wood to -be collected, and, setting fire to it, burnt them out. Several of the enemy were slain, but the rest escaped into tue iutertor Of the fort, where they succeeded in barricading themselves. But the men who had braved the dangers of storming the garrison were no to be thwarted by this stratagem. The crowbars were again in use, the barricades yielded to the almost superhuman efforts of the besiegers, an opening was effected, and again Kerr and Gumpunt were the first to enter the deadly breach. They rushed forward under a heavy fire, and again there VMS a terrific hand-tohand struggle, fur the besieged men had grown t. esperate as they found they were playing their last slake. They tried hard to shoot down Kerr, but failed ; one bullet cut the chain of his helmet, another hit the blade of his sword so as to turn its edge; a musket was discharged in his face, but it only blinded him for a momeut, and the next he ran his sword through the body of his assailant, who fell dead at his feet. but as, with difficulty, he was drawing out his sword from the body of the man, a Sepoy stinek him a violent blow on the head with the butt-end of a musket, and Kerr, staggering under it, was just losing coui4ciinsness, and would inevitably have beau slain by the bayonet-thrust of one of the rebels, had not the faithful Gumpunt, who never throughout the engagement quitted the aside of his leader, snatched up hie musket and shot the adversary dead. The struggle in the fort ended in the rebel survivors flying for their lbes into s disused temple, where they barricaded:themselves and commenced a hot fire upon their assailants, who were now sadly reduced in number, ten out of the eighteen having been killed, or wounded too seriously to continue the conflict. Kerr had for some time been struggling on, despite a severe wound he bad received; and now that the conflict was narrowing itself into a limited compass, be would tot allow himself to think of relaxing his efforts. Again the crowbar was in requisition, but it was found impossible to r..l • ta....halp au their 18,4 stronghold were determined to fight for lift dearly. For a moment there was hesitation, and then some hay caught the quick eye of Kerr; he seized some of it, set it on fire, and in a short time the fire did what the crowbar could not effect. The barricade yielded, and the remnant of the assailants and the remnant of the besieged stood face to face. There was a clash of weapons, a confused shouting of voices, and then a stillness broken only by groans. Every mutineer lay dead or dying.—From "Heroes of Britain in Peace and War," fw July.