A Diary Kept by Mrs. R. C. Germon, at Lucknow, Between the Months of May and December, 1857Germon, Maria
History
A Diary Kept by Mrs. R. C. Germon, at Lucknow, Between the Months of May and December, 1857
Germon, Maria
Germon, Maria; India -- History -- Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-1858; Lucknow (India) -- History -- Siege, 1857 -- Personal narratives
Saturday, November 28th. While we were still in bed, came an order
to strike tents and be off; it seemed almost more than one could do:
we hurried and dressed, and had a little breakfast, and I was in
the hackery by 8! We had tremendous work to get out of the crowd of
hackeries starting and get into the line, and it was half-past 9 before
we really began our march. We heard very heavy firing at Cawnpore all
day, so that the Chief ordered us not to halt at Enown, but march
the whole way in to the banks of the river--thirty miles--he himself
hurried on to Cawnpore, and it was fortunate he did, for the Gwalior
mutineers had been there three days; and this day, the 64th Queen's,
returning from spiking some guns, lost 7 or 8 officers; indeed, all
that went out with them: and an officer of the 70th had to bring them
out of action. I jolted on in my hackney from 8 in the morning till 12
at night, the life almost jolted out of me; luckily we had bread and
cheese and a bottle of beer with us. Charlie dragged on his weary way,
first walking and then in the hackery, but he was quite done up at
last; and yet, when we got to the encamping ground, we were two hours
more searching for Mrs. B----'s tent: it was 2 o'clock before I got in.
Then, of course, our baggage hackery never arrived till late the next
day; so we had to contrive and boil a little water in a lotah, so as
to have a cup of tea, and then we lay down,--Charlie outside and I in
the tent with Mrs. B----.
Sunday, November 29th. We hoped to be allowed to halt, but an order
came that we were to go two miles nearer the river, and to form a very
compact camp on account of the enemy. We started again, and got to
camp in the middle of the day; had the tent pitched in a nice turfy
spot, and were having dinner all comfortably, when another order came
that we were to cross the river that night! This was killing work,
but we afterwards heard the enemy intended firing on the bridge of
boats; luckily, Sir Colin had a battery up close to it, and kept them
off. No doubt it was a most anxious time to him--but we did grumble
occasionally, as he did not appear to think much of our comfort. Mrs.
S---- was confined in her dhoolie while changing ground this morning.
At 8 P.M. we started--all the baggage hackeries were to be stopped for
us ladies to cross the bridge of boats; but in consequence of some
of them having "dodged" into the line, it took us eight hours to do
the three miles; fortunately, it was a splendid moonlight night; just
as we were on the bridge of boats there was a sudden discharge of
musketry, which greatly alarmed us. I thought for certain the enemy
were going to attack us, but it turned out to be our own men firing in
the entrenchment; we happened to have stuck just at the time, and the
bridge of boats is so narrow we could not have escaped. I own I was
more frightened this night than any time during the siege; however, we
got safely to the Artillery barracks, where we were to halt; some very
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