Cawnpoor. before the enemy could destroy it. The stream, though usually fordable, was A.D. 1857. now flooded, and might have proved a serious obstacle to the advance, if the bridge had been removed. Fortunately the enemy were surprised in the very Advance on act of mining, and after a short but sharp contest, were compelled to retreat on Cawnpoor. This place was now only twenty-three miles distant, and every man was anxious to push on for it without the loss of a single hour. Above 200 European women and children, reserved by Nana Sahib when he perpetrated his two previous massacres, were reported to be still alive. What a glorious enterprise to rescue them, and at the same time take summary vengeance on their inhuman jailer! Notwithstanding the universal eagerness to advance, some delay was unavoidable. Night had set in before the commissariat cattle had reached the encamping ground, and many of the men, before animal food could be prepared, had sunk down exhausted, after contenting themselves with porter and biscuit. In the morning when the men again started, a march of sixteen miles brought them to the village of Maharajpoor. Here during a halt and a hasty meal, which like that of the previous night was more stimulating than nutritive, the force and position of the rebels were ascertained. Nana Sahib in person had come out from Cawnpoor with 5000 men and eight guns, and was encamped about seven miles on this side of it, near the village of Aheerwa. Could anything have given genuine courage and confidence to this execrable miscreant, he might have found it in the strength of his position. His left, resting on the high ground which sloped to the Ganges about a mile below, was defended by four twenty-four pounders, his centre, posted in a hamlet where a horse sixpounder and a twenty-four pounder howitzer stood entrenched, was intersected by two roads the one the grand trunk road passing immediately on the right, and the other, which branched off from it about half a mile in front and led directly to the Cawnpoor cantonments, passing at some distance to the left; the right, posted behind a village embosomed among mango groves, and inclosed by a mud wall, had the additional defence of two nine-pounders and the railway embankment at some distance beyond. The whole line was in the form of a crescent, with its concavity fronting the trunk road, by which it was assumed that the attack would be made. General Havelock resolved to make it from a different direction. Any attempt to carry the entrenchments in front would, even if successful, entail a loss of life which might be almost as fatal as defeat; and his determination therefore was to turn the left flank, where the dryness of the ground and the gradual ascent fully compensated for its greater elevation. The British force began to advance along the trunk road in a column of sub-divisions—the volunteer cavalry taking the lead in front. A march of three miles having brought them to the point where the two roads diverged, the column wheeled to the right, and under cover of a line of thick groves, Position of the mutineers at Ma harajpoor. of the rebels poor. A.D. 1857. advanced 1000 yards in that direction unseen by the enemy, who, when they saw the volunteer cavalry pursuing the direct road, naturally supposed that Signal defeat they were followed closely by the main body. At length an opening in the at Maharaj trees having made the rebels aware that their left was the real object of attack, they opened all their available guns on the flank of the advancing column, and at the same time attempted to meet it by a change of front. It was too late. Before they could recover from their surprise and consternation, the column had emerged from the grove, and the companies wheeling into line were advancing rapidly under cover of an effective fire from the artillery. To this fire the rebels could not reply from their centre and right, without mowing down their own left, and thus one of their most powerful arms was in some measure paralyzed. Still, however, their twenty-four pounders on their left did so much execution, that a speedy resort to the bayonet became necessary. The mode in which this was done is thus described in the despatch: "The opportunity had arrived for which I have long anxiously waited of developing the prowess of the 78th Highlanders. Three guns of the enemy were strongly posted behind a lofty hamlet well entrenched. I directed this regiment to advance, and never have I witnessed conduct more admirable. They were led by Colonel Hamilton, and followed him with surpassing steadiness and gallantry under a heavy fire. As they approached the village, they cheered and charged with the bayonet, the pipes sounding the pibroch. Need I add that the enemy fled, and the village was taken, and the guns were captured?" When the enemy's left was thus crushed, their infantry rushing to the rear, appeared to break into two bodies, the one retiring a few hundred yards on the road to the Cawnpoor cantonments, and the other rallying near the howitzer which defended their centre. On this, the general calling again upon the 78th, exclaimed, Now, Highlanders, another charge like that wins the day." They answered with a cheer and a rush, and aided by the 64th, who emulated their courage, captured the howitzer, scattering the masses who had made it their rallying point. During these operations the enemy's right had been driven in headlong flight. Though victory had now declared itself, the fighting had not ceased. From one of the villages where the fugitives had rallied, a heavy fire was kept up, and not silenced till the general, who well knew how to excite and maintain a spirit of honourable rivalship among his troops, called aloud, “Come, who'll take that village, the Highlanders or the 64th?" The appeal was instantaneously answered, and the village effectually cleared. Battle resumed. One other effort was required. When the enemy seemed in full retreat, a destructive fire was suddenly opened from two light guns and a twenty-four pounder, which had been planted in reserve upon the road. The troops around these guns consisted partly of reinforcements whom Nana Sahib had called to his assistance from Cawnpoor, and who were consequently fresh, while our men were exhausted. As our guns were a mile in the rear, the British troops while of the rebels. waiting for them lay down for shelter from the fire which was carrying death A.D. 1857. into their ranks. This halt gave new courage to the enemy. Nana Sahib was seen riding among them, while the noise of their drums and trumpets indicated Fresh defeat that another grand effort was about to be made. They accordingly prepared to advance, while their cavalry spreading out in the form of a crescent, threatened to envelope the British force, which did not now exceed 800 men. Matters once more looked serious. My artillery cattle," says the general, "wearied by the length of the march, could not bring up the guns to my assistance, and the Madras fusiliers, the 64th, 84th, and 78th detachments formed in line, were exposed to a heavy fire from the twenty-four pounder on the road. I was resolved this state of things should not last; so calling upon my men who were lying down in line, to leap on their feet, I directed another steady advance. It was irresistible. The enemy sent round shot into our ranks until we were within 300 yards, and then poured in grape with such precision and determination as I have seldom witnessed. But the 64th, led by Major Stirling, and by my aide-de-camp (the general's own son, now Sir Henry Havelock), who had placed himself in their front, were not to be denied. Their rear showed the ground strewed with wounded, but on they steadily and silently came, then with a cheer charged and captured the unwieldy trophy of their valour. The enemy lost all heart, and after a hurried fire of musketry, gave way in total rout. Four of my guns came up, and completed their discomfiture by a heavy cannonade; and as it grew dark, the roofless barracks of our artillery were dimly descried in advance, and it was evident that Cawnpoor was once more in our possession." entered. Tempting as the immediate occupation of Cawnpoor must have been to Cawnpoor General Havelock, it would have been hazardous to enter it in the dark, and the exhausted troops bivouacked for the night on the bare ground. Next morning before starting, spies returned with the dreadful intelligence that the fiendish Nana, to compensate for the successive defeats of his adherents, had on the 15th taken the revenge of which only such a nature as his was capable, by massacring the 210 helpless women and children, whom a previous act of gross treachery had placed in his power. When the troops entered the town, Sir Hugh Wheeler's encampment, and the prison-house where the recent butchery had been perpetrated, were naturally the first objects of interest. The scene which Horrid spec presented itself is too horrible to be dwelt upon, and we therefore simply sented. borrow the brief description of it by Mr. Marshman in his Memoirs. “The pavement was swimming in blood, and fragments of ladies' and children's dresses were floating on it. They entered the apartments and found them empty and silent, but there also the blood lay deep on the floor, covered with bonnets, collars, combs, and children's frocks and frills. The walls were dotted with the marks of bullets, and on the wooden pillars were deep sword-cuts, from some of which hung tresses of hair. But neither the sabre-cuts nor the tacle pre A.D. 1857. bullets were sufficiently high above the floor to indicate that the weapons had been aimed at men defending their lives; they appear rather to have been levelled at crouching women and children begging for mercy. The soldiers proceeded in their search, when in crossing the court-yard they perceived Horrible scene presented on entering Cawnpoor Disorder in the British camp. THE "SLAUGHTER-HOUSE," CAWNPOOR, where the Massacre took place. tacle it is easy to conceive, but impossible to describe. human limbs bristling from a well, and on further examination found it to be choked up with the bodies of the victims, which appeared to have been thrown in promiscuously, the dead with the wounded, till it was full to the brim. The feelings of those who witnessed the specMen of iron nerve who, during the march from Allahabad, had rushed to the cannon's mouth without flinching, and had seen unappalled their comrades mowed down around them, now lifted up their voices and wept." The exultation produced by the victory at Cawnpoor was followed by a certain degree of despondency. The British ranks had been thinned not only in fight, but by cholera, which carrying on its insidious ravages, scarcely allowed a day to pass without cutting short some valuable life which could ill be spared. While thus weakened, the magnitude of the task assigned to the force became more palpable, and it was impossible not to feel anxious when the question was asked, How will it be possible with a handful of men to clear the road of the myriads of rebels, and force the way to Lucknow? In answer to urgent applications for reinforcements, General Neill (such was now his rank) entered Cawnpoor on the 20th of July, bringing with him only 227 men. More than these were necessary to garrison the town, and thus the force which remained available for action in the field was less than before. To aggravate the difficulty, discipline had begun to yield to the love of plunder, and the general was obliged to exchange laudatory terms in addressing his troops for such language as the following: "The marauding in this camp exceeds the disorders which supervened on the short-lived triumph of the miscreant Nana Sahib. A provostmarshal has been appointed with special instructions to hang up, in their uniform, all British soldiers that plunder. This shall not be an idle threat." and danger ing into While pondering the difficulties which lay before him, Havelock had been A.D. 1857. heard to exclaim, "If the worst comes to the worst, we can but die with swords in our hands." But this resource, which the brave man can always Difficulty count upon, would be a very sorry excuse for the general who should bring of advanc matters to that desperate pass without absolute necessity. His very first step, Oude. therefore, after entering Cawnpoor, was to select a spot which he could fortify, so as at once to command the passage of the river and secure the safety of the garrison. Fortunately such a spot was easily found. It was situated on the bank of the river, and formed an elevated flat, about 200 yards in length and 100 in breadth. On this spot necessary operations for a field-work, capable of accommodating and of being defended by 300 men, were immediately com- Havelock's menced and carried on with the utmost vigour. Nearly 4000 native labourers ment. from the town were set to work, and encouraged to punctuality by regular payment every evening. The irregular cavalry, who had been disarmed on the march for disaffection, were also made to labour, while British soldiers possessing mechanical skill were induced to exert it by a gratuity of sixpence a day. The work made so much progress, that it promised to be able to protect itself by the time the passage of the Ganges could be effected. This last was a work of no small difficulty. The Ganges, nearly a mile wide, was swollen to an impetuous torrent; the bridge of boats had been broken by the mutineers; and entrench WELL AT CAWNPOOR.-From sketch by Lieutenant Pearce, engraved in Illustrated Times. After considerable there were neither boats nor boatmen to supply its place. |