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
How the shout of exultation ran round the seventeen shot-battered posts
of the long-besieged entrenchments can be imagined. The women, the
children, the very sick in the hospital, lent their voices to that shout.
The Highlanders, who came first, poured their Celtic exclamations and
blessings on the men and women they had rescued. “We expected to have
found only your bones,” said one. That the children were still alive
filled the gallant but soft-hearted Highlanders with amazed joy. “The
big, rough-bearded soldiers,” wrote one of the rescued ladies, “were
seizing the little children out of our arms, kissing them with tears
running down their cheeks, and thanking God that they had come in time to
save them from the fate of those at Cawnpore.”
Let it be remembered that for more than eighty days the garrison had
lived under the shadow of death. No message, no whisper of news, from the
outside world had reached them. Their rescuers were men of the same name
and blood, who had fought their way as if through the flames of the Pit
to reach and save them! And into what a mood of passionate joy amongst
the delivered, and of passionate exultation and triumph amongst the
deliverers, the crowd which thronged the Residency that night was lifted
may be more easily imagined than described. It was a night worth living
for; almost worth dying for.
Lady Inglis has told how she listened to the tremendous cheering that
welcomed the British across the Residency lines, and how her husband
brought up “a short, quiet-looking, grey-haired man,” who she guessed at
once was Havelock. It was a great triumph, but a great price was paid for
it. The relieving column, out of its 3000 men, lost in killed or wounded
more than 700, nearly one in every four of its whole number!
One unfortunate incident marked the relief. As the Highlanders approached
the Bailey Guard Gate they took Aitken’s men of the 13th for the enemy,
and leaped upon them with gleaming and angry bayonets, and slew some
before their blunder was discovered. It was never imagined that the very
outpost of the heroic garrison would be found to consist of Sepoys,
fighting with such long-enduring loyalty against their own countrymen.
It was a very cruel fate for these faithful Sepoys to perish under the
bayonets of the relieving force.
Still another remarkable incident may be described. A cluster of doolies,
with wounded officers and men, lost its way in the tangled streets and
was cut off. Nine men of the escort, with five wounded, took refuge in
a small building which formed one side of the gateway where Neill had
been shot; and for a whole day and night they defended themselves against
overwhelming numbers. Dr. Home, of the 90th, was one of the party, and
has left a graphic account of what is perhaps the most brilliant little
incident in the whole history of the siege.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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