The Tale of the Great MutinyFitchett, W. H. (William Henry)
History
The Tale of the Great Mutiny
Fitchett, W. H. (William Henry)
India -- History -- Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-1858
Neill stood in a bay of a garden wall close by, with his “blue-caps”
lying down under cover, waiting till Outram’s flanking movement should
tell on the enemy’s battery; and Maude, with his artillerymen almost
all shot down, said to young Havelock, “Do something, in the name of
Heaven!” Havelock rode through the tempest of shot to Neill, and urged
an immediate rush on the bridge; but Neill, with soldierly coolness,
declared he would not move without orders. Then young Havelock played a
boyish and gallant trick. He rode quietly off, turned round a bend in
the road, and a moment after came back at a gallop, gave a smart salute
to Neill as he pulled up his horse on its haunches, and said, as though
bringing an order from his father, “You are to carry the bridge at once,
sir!”
At the word, Arnold, who commanded the “blue-caps,” leaped to his feet
and raced on to the bridge, his men rising with a shout and following
him. Havelock and Tytler overtook him at a gallop, and the bridge in a
moment was covered with a mass of charging soldiers.
But a blast of shots from the guns at its head—the deep bellow of the
24-pounders sounding high above the tumult—swept the bridge for a moment
clear. Arnold had fallen with both legs smashed, Tytler’s horse had
gone down with its brave rider; only young Havelock and a corporal of
the Fusileers, named Jakes, stood unhurt. Havelock rode coolly up to
the rampart of earth, and, waving his sword, called to the Fusileers to
“come on”; and Corporal Jakes, as he busily plied his musket, shouted
to Havelock, soothingly, “Never fear, sir! We’ll soon have the beggars
out of that!” All this took but a few seconds of time; the Sepoys were
toiling with frantic energy to reload their guns. Then through the white
smoke came the rush of the Madras Fusileers—an officer leading. Over the
bridge, up the seven-foot rampart, through the intervals betwixt the guns
as with a single impulse, came the levelled bayonets and fierce faces of
the charging British, and the bridge was won!
The entire British force came swiftly over, the 78th was left to hold the
bridge and form the rearguard, while the British column swung round to
the right and pushed on through the narrow lane that bordered the canal.
The 78th, while guarding the bridge, had a very trying experience. A
great force of the enemy came down the Cawnpore road with banners flying
and loud beating of drums, and flung itself with wild courage on the
Highlanders. A little stone temple stood a hundred yards up the road,
commanding the bridge; the Sepoys took possession of this, and from it
galled the Highlanders cruelly with their fire. Hastings, of the 78th,
stepped out to the front, and called for volunteers to storm the temple.
There was an angry rush of Highlanders up the road; the temple was
carried at the point of the bayonet, and then held as a sort of outwork
to the bridge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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