HKB
[Sidenote: Massacre of Jhansi]
At three stations--Lucknow, Jhansi and Cawnpore--the mutiny was of political importance. The city of Lucknow, the capital of Oude, extended four miles along the right bank of the river Goomti. The British Residency and other principal buildings were between the city and the river. The Residency was a walled inclosure, and near it stood a castellated structure, the Muchi Bowun. Since the affair of May 3, Sir Henry Lawrence had been making preparations for a defence in case of insurrection. The native force consisted of three regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, all Sepoys, and there was a European force of 570 men with sixty artillerymen. Lawrence brought all the European non-combatants within the Residency walls, and established a strong post between the Residency and the Muchi Bowun to command the two bridges which led to the cantonments. The outbreak began on May 30, when the insurgents rushed to the bridges, and, being repulsed by Lawrence, made off to Delhi. At Jhansi, the garrison of fifty-five men was butchered in cold blood.
[Sidenote: Defence of Cawnpore]
[Sidenote: Massacre of Cawnpore]
[Sidenote: Englishwomen spared]
At Cawnpore, on the Ganges, fifty-five miles southwest of Lucknow, the tragedy was even more terrible. Cawnpore had been in the possession of the English for more than fifty years. In May, sixty-one artillerymen and four Sepoy regiments were there. Sir Hugh Wheeler, the commandant, prepared for the coming storm. He took some old barracks and there quartered the white women, children and invalids. He accepted from the Nana, who professed great friendship, 200 Mahrattas and two guns. On the night of June 4, the Sepoy regiment at Cawnpore broke out in mutiny. The Nana overtook them on the road to Delhi and soon returned with them to Cawnpore. Sir Hugh was taken by surprise on the morning of the 6th, when he received a message from the Nana, announcing that his men were about to attack the Englishmen. Sir Hugh prepared for the defence of the barracks. The mutineers first rifled the city and cantonment, and murdered all the English who came in their way. At noon they opened fire on the intrenchments. From the 6th to the 25th of June, the inmates struggled against fearful odds. Though starving, they resisted successfully. On June 25, Wheeler received a proposal that safe passage would be given to Allahabad to those who were willing to lay down their arms. An armistice was proclaimed, and next morning terms were negotiated. The English were to capitulate and march out with their arms and sixty rounds of ammunition for each man, to the river a mile away, where boats would be furnished for all. The next morning they marched down to the boats--the men on foot, the wounded and non-combatants on elephants and bullocks. They were all huddled together on board the boats. Suddenly, at the sound of a bugle, a murderous fire was opened on them. The women and children, one hundred and twenty-five in number, were hurried off to prison, and the men were ordered to immediate execution. All was soon over. Nana was proclaimed Peishwa. English reinforcements were coming from Allahabad. Nana hastened back to Cawnpore. There, within a few days, more than two hundred English were taken prisoners. The men were all butchered, and eighty women and children were sent to join those in a house near the Nana. Great excitement prevailed in England, where it was believed that these women were subjected to all manner of outrage and made to long for death as an escape from shame. As a matter of fact the royal widows of the Nana's adoptive father did their utmost to protect the captive Englishwomen. They threatened to throw themselves and their children from the palace windows should any harm befall the English ladies. Thanks to them no worse indignity than the compulsory grinding of corn was inflicted on the white women. Meanwhile, Colonel Mill was pushing up from Calcutta. In July, he was joined at Allahabad by a column under General Havelock.