The Book of the V.C.: A record of the deeds of heroism for which the Victoria Cross has been bestowed, from its institution in 1857 to the present timeHaydon, A. L. (Arthur Lincoln)
History
The Book of the V.C.: A record of the deeds of heroism for which the Victoria Cross has been bestowed, from its institution in 1857 to the present time
Haydon, A. L. (Arthur Lincoln)
Great Britain -- History, Military; Victoria Cross
“To the Residency!” was the cry, a young civilian named Thornhill having
undertaken to guide them thither. But between them and Havelock’s house
was a network of streets and lanes that had to be threaded, and these
were still overrun with sepoys. It was a true _via dolorosa_ that lay
before them.
The order having been given, the dhoolies were picked up by very
reluctant native bearers, the surgeons closed in round their charges,
and they started off, while the escort covered their progress as best
they could. After a terrible hour’s journeying, with sepoys hanging on
flank and rear, the little company eventually reached the Martinière
(a building erected by a French soldier of fortune in the eighteenth
century). Their stay here was short, however, for a well-directed
cannonade drove them once more afield. A flooded nullah was next crossed,
and beyond this seemed to lie safety, but a fatal blunder on the part of
their guide led them into a veritable death-trap.
The street into which they filed appeared to be deserted. As a matter of
fact it was full of sepoys, who were concealed in the houses on either
side. This was the narrow street leading to the Bailey Guard Gate, the
entrance to the Residency; along its three-quarters of a mile, some
hours previously, the 78th Highlanders and Brasyer’s Sikhs had won their
way through a perfect tempest of shot. A similar reception awaited the
dhoolies.
As the ill-fated train passed through and gained the square at the
farther end, the storm of musketry broke into full blast over their
heads. In a moment the panic-stricken bearers dropped the dhoolies and
fled for dear life, leaving the wounded men in the middle of the square
exposed to every sepoy marksman. The fire of close on a thousand muskets
must have been concentrated on that small enclosure, but Surgeon Home
managed, with nine men of the escort, to get half a dozen of the wounded
within the shelter of a building before which was a covered archway.
Surgeon Bradshaw, meanwhile, who had been in the rear of the train, had
collected his dhoolies as soon as the nature of the trap was disclosed,
and turned hastily back to seek the turning that their guide ought to
have taken. The luckless Thornhill had been killed, having been one of
the first to be shot down. It is satisfactory to add that Bradshaw was
successful in bringing his dhoolies to safe quarters without further
mishap.
Would that such had been the case with Surgeon Home! He and his party
had gained shelter for the time, but none could say how long it would
be before the horde of sepoys would storm it. The most daring of the
mutineers had already ventured out into the square to kill those of the
wounded whom they could reach and to fire through the windows of the
house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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