BOOK IX. Chapter II. 1857. August 19. The garrison successfully mine Johannes' house. Occurrences between the third and fourth assault. 470 THE GARRISON MINE JOHANNES' HOUSE. could be practised by defenders as well as by assailants. Johannes' house, held by the enemy, was a dominant position, and, as the siege wore on, the fire from it had become intolerable. It could no longer be taken by a sortie, for the enemy, warned by the previous successful sally, held it in such force as to render impossible any further attempt of the kind. There was only one resource, and that was to mine under it. Many nights of terrible toil, sustained almost exclusively by the officers, were spent in the work. At last the Engineer officer reported that the mine was, he believed, well advanced under the building. It was then heavily charged. To entice as many of the enemy as possible within the building, the garrison, on the 21st, opened upon it a heavy musketry fire. The enemy, regarding this fire as the prelude to another sortie, crowded into the house to assist in its defence. No sooner did the garrison note this than they fired the mine. The result was most successful. Johannes' house played no further part in the siege of Lakhnao. In the interval between this date and the fourth and last assault on the 5th of September the losses of the garrison alike from the fire of the enemy and from sickness were very heavy. I find Captain Wilson, the Assistant Adjutant-General, thus writing in his journal on the 23rd of August :"A heavy cannonade from the enemy from daylight till about 10 P.M. when it slackened. Their principal efforts were against the Brigade Messhouse and Kánhpúr battery: the former they THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE ASSAULTS. 471 BOOK IX. Chapter II. 1857. seriously damaged, and succeeded in entirely levelling the guard-houses on the top, both of which had fallen in and there was no longer any August 23. cover for our musketry to fire from. Our ranks were rapidly thinning." The following extract from the same diary on the same day will show the enormous difficulties which beset the garrison even in the matter of labour absolutely necessary and of the repair of damages from the enemy's shot. "We had work nightly," writes Captain Wilson, "for at least three hundred men; we had the defences to repair daily, supplies to remove from godowns which were fallen in from the effect of the enemy's shot, mines to countermine, guns to remove, barricades to erect, corpses to bury, and rations to serve out; but with our weak, harassed, and daily diminishing garrison, we could seldom produce as working parties more than three fatigue parties of eight or ten men each relief." Other difficulties too were overtaking them. It was the rainy season. And the grass and jungle outside the defences had grown in the prolific manner natural to grass and jungle during the rainy season in India. This extreme growth rendered it possible for the mutineers to steal up, unobserved, close to the intrenchment. The heavy rain had likewise greatly injured many of the defences. Many of The supplies the supplies had been expended; the supply of tobacco was exhausted; flour had become scarce. In place of flour wheat was now issued to all who could find time to grind it. The stench from decaying and decayed offal had become, in many diminished. 472 THE FOURTH GRAND ASSAULT. The fourth grand assault. places, scarcely endurable. Mortality from sickness had, too, become very prevalent especially amongst the children. There was, however, during this period one great counterpoise to the mental and bodily wear and tear. The garrison were still buoyed up by hope from outside. On the 22nd and 23rd reports of distant firing were heard. These had been often noticed before, and now caused but little excitement. But on the 28th, the messenger Angad returned within the intrenchment conveying a letter from General Havelock, dated the 24th, with the information that he had no hope of being able to relieve them for twenty-five days. They had a certainty then of three weeks' continuance of this life, probably of more. One result of this letter was a further reduction in the amount of rations! On the 5th of September the enemy tried their fourth grand assault. The morning was fine, with a late moon giving a clear light before day had broken. The enemy, however, waited for the dawn to commence a cannonade severer, if possible, than the last referred to. As the sun rose about eight thousand rebel infantry were descried preparing for an assault. It is needless to add that the garrison were ready-waiting for it. About 10 o'clock the enemy exploded two mines, one-the larger-close to the 18pounder battery; the other at the Brigade Messhouse. Fortunately they had they had miscalculated their distance and in each case the explosion did little harm. But as soon as the smoke BOOK IX. 1857. September 5. had cleared away they were seen advancing with great resolution-their attack specially di- Chapter II. rected against Gubbins's post. Planting an enormous ladder against the bastion they essayed to mount it. Several reached the top but they encountered so heavy a fire of musketry and handgrenades from the defenders that not a man could gain a footing. They came on again and again, however, with extraordinary courage,—not only against this point but against the Sikh square and the Brigade Mess-house; nor was it until Repulsed. they had lost an enormous number of men that they fell back, beaten, baffled, and dispirited. The British loss amounted to but three killed and one wounded. Native In It deserves to be recorded that in this attack The "eight" eight sepoys of the 13th Native Infantry, assisted of the 13th by three artillerymen, loaded and worked the fantry. 18-pounder in the 13th battery, and after three or four rounds, succeeded in silencing the 18-pounder opposed to them. This battery was entirely under charge of those sepoys. It had been constructed solely by them under the superintendence of the Engineers, and they were very proud of it. The assail ants are by their re pulse. Similar attacks, though in less force, were made the same day at other points, but they were all dispirited repulsed. The 5th of September was, in fact, the worst day the assailants had experienced. They had lost more men than on any previous occasion, and they appeared to those of the garrison who occupied positions commanding a view of their retreat to be more thoroughly BOOK IX. Chapter II. 1857. September. Sickness increases within the defences. 474 SICKNESS INCREASES WITHIN THE DEFENCES. beaten than ever. Certainly they were more thoroughly dispirited, for they never tried a general assault again. Still for twenty days the garrison remained cut off from the outer world, exposed day and night to a heavy fire of musketry and guns, to mines, to surprises, to attacks on isolated parts. The most unhealthy month of the year, the month in which the stagnant water caused by the abundant rainfall of July and August dries up, emitting miasmatic smells bearing with them fever, dysentery and cholera, had now come to find a congenial field for its ravages within the intrenchments. The live stock, too, was sensibly diminishing, the small stock of rum and porter,* reserved only for the sick and wounded, was running low. As the numbers of the garrison diminished the labours of the survivors naturally augmented. Added to this, scarcely a day passed but some portion of one or other of the posts crumbled under the weight of the enemy's fire. Now it was two sides of Innes's house, steadily cannonaded daily with 18-pounder shot, that fell in; now the verandah of the Residency Some idea of the scarcity may be conceived from the prices realised at auction and at private sales. On the 10th a bottle of brandy realised at auction £1 14s.; on the 12th, £2 were given for a small chicken; £1 12s. for a bottle of Curaçoa, whilst the same price was offered for two pounds of sugar. A new flan nel shirt fetched £4, whilst five old ones realised £11 4s. On the 19th the price of a bottle of brandy had risen to £2. The post was, however, still nobly held, and preparations made for some kind of defence out of the debris. -Diary of a Staff Officer. |