Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877Kennedy, James
History
Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877
Kennedy, James
India -- Description and travel; India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947 -- Biography; Missionaries; Missions -- India
As we travelled from Cawnpore to Lucknow we passed houses close to the
road which still retained the loopholes through which the enemy had
fired on our troops. The earthworks hastily raised for temporary shelter
still remained. We were reminded at every mile of the fierce resistance
our soldiers had to encounter. At Lucknow we remained for a week, and
went over all the scenes made memorable by recent events. We paid
several visits to the Residency, where our people defended themselves so
long and valiantly against thousands of armed men well supplied with
ammunition. At every step proofs presented themselves of the desperate
struggle maintained with the foe. The houses in the Residency had been
so battered and torn by shells and balls that scarcely one was habitable
before its evacuation, and the ruin was completed when the city was
finally taken by Sir Colin Campbell. At the beginning of 1859 the whole
place was a mass of ruin, with here and there a piece of tottering wall,
shaken or perforated by heavy shot and ready to come down. The walls
still stood, though in a very broken state, of the house in which Sir
Henry Lawrence died, and the spot was pointed out to us where he had
received his death-wound. A large body of labourers was employed in
taking down the ruined walls and levelling the ground. We observed bones
which had been dug up by them as they pursued their work.
From the entrance into Lucknow on the Cawnpore road there is a street,
two miles in length, leading straight to the Residency. The enemy
expected our army to advance by this street, and made provision for its
destruction by digging trenches, and lining the houses on both sides
with musketeers ready to pour on our soldiers a killing fire. The
relieving army, guided by a person who knew Lucknow well, and had at
great risk made his way to them at night from the Residency, made a
sudden detour to the right, and advanced by a comparatively open route,
stoutly but unsuccessfully opposed at almost every step. I had the
promise of a guide to take me on foot by this route to the Residency,
but on reaching Alum Bagh, the appointed place of meeting, I found no
one there. I made my way, however, with very little difficulty by
observing the marks of the bullets on the houses along the line
traversed. I sometimes lost the trace, but soon recovered it, musing as
I went along on the very different circumstances in which our countrymen
a short time previously had gone over that road.
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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