Photo by Bourne & Shepherd, Calcutta.]
THE CASHMERE GATE, DELHI.
There is nothing in English history, at least during the last six centuries, approaching in horror to the massacre of Cawnpore, and it is well that one is not often called on to witness—to share in—the fury, the wild cry for revenge, that rose from England when the tale came to be told there. Nana Sahib waited to encounter the victorious Havelock on July 16; he was completely defeated, fled from the field in the direction of Nepaul, and has never since been heard of. Of the twelve men who left the boat which floated down the Ganges, four escaped after extraordinary adventures, by favour of a friendly rajah—the sole survivors of the European community at Cawnpore.
A. Pearse.]
BLOWING UP OF THE CASHMERE GATE, DELHI.
This was one of the most daring exploits in a campaign remarkable for deeds of gallantry. Advancing across a broken drawbridge in broad daylight, in the face of the enemy’s defences, Lieutenants Home and Salkeld, with native sappers to carry the gunpowder, succeeded in laying eight bags of powder against the gate. Home leaped into the ditch unhurt; Salkeld, who held a lighted port fire, was badly wounded and fell back on the bridge, handing the port-fire as he fell to Sergeant Burgess, who was immediately shot dead. Sergeant Carmichael then advanced, picked up the port-fire, and lighted the fuse, but fell mortally wounded. The gate was blown in, killing all its defenders but one, and the British entered without opposition.
On June 8 General Wilson appeared before Delhi, but his force was far too small to attempt to invest a city held by 30,000 insurgents.|Siege of Delhi.| General Nicholson reinforced him in August, and on September 20 the place was taken by assault, Nicholson falling dead at the head of the storming columns.
