Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp: Late a Lieut. in His Majesty's 87th RegimentShipp, John
History
Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp: Late a Lieut. in His Majesty's 87th Regiment
Shipp, John
India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947 -- Biography; Shipp, John, 1784-1834
Oh! what must be the anguish of a fond mother, to
see nothing but the head of her fondling hanging to her bosom! I will
relate one melancholy case of this kind, out of numbers that came within
my observation, and actually happened at this place.
A female was lying on a bed of green silk; under her head was a pillow
of the same material; her right arm had, no doubt, cradled her babe; and
her left was extended as though for the purpose of keeping her child
close to her. A large shell had perforated the tiled roof, and, having
made its way through three floors, had gone through the foot of the bed,
and penetrated some depth into the fourth floor. A piece of this shell
had gone through the woman's forehead, carrying away a great part of the
head; so that her death, according to the opinion of a medical man who
saw her, must have been instantaneous. The lower part of the child's
body, from the hips downward, was entirely gone; but, strange to say,
its mother's nipple still hung in the left corner of its mouth, and its
little right hand still held by its mother's clothes, which probably it
had grasped at the first noise of the shell. We understood that this
woman was the wife of a most respectable officer in the fort, who had
also met his death some hours before her, and was, therefore, in pity
spared the afflicting sight. Such, reader, are the scenes of war! Such
are the sights which soldiers, in the course of service, are called upon
to witness! The poor woman and her babe were committed to the
grave--probably the first of her generation that ever returned to the
earth as her last home; for she was a Hindoo woman.
The garrison of this fort had been solicited, in the warmest manner, to
send their families to their homes, with a promise that they should be
guarded to any part of the country, and their property guaranteed to
them. To these proposals, dictated by the feelings of humanity, which
our good general possessed in a most eminent degree, we received nothing
but contemptuous answers. Be the blood of their slaughtered relatives,
therefore, on their shoulders, not on ours! Wherever the troops of the
Company have been employed, humanity has always marked their steps; yet
I have only known one instance in my long service, in which the natives
consented to avail themselves of the kind offer made to them, that their
families should be protected. I shall have the pleasure of mentioning
this in its proper place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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