August 3rd.—Smart firing till daylight. Every possible effort was made to strengthen our position and raise the height of our defences. A soldier of the 32nd Foot was shot dead this morning in the centre room of the hospital; showing how little safety anywhere existed against the enemy's fire.
A new loophole on the top of the brigade mess, which it was discovered commanded a distant and much frequented lane in the city, was made use of by Lieutenant Sewell, armed with his Enfield rifle; the distance being not above 750 yards, the conical bullets most effectually cleared the lanes of the sepoys, as they lounged up it, and quickened the paces of the citizens as they crossed and recrossed.
Enemy unusually slack in firing after dark till about 10 P.M., when they recommenced firing, and continued it during the night. The engineers continued their endeavours to strengthen our position, by heightening the abattis near the Redan. A fine moonlight night. Several cannon shots were heard in the distance, but no intelligence of any kind reached us.
August 4th.—The enemy fired a great number of rounds from their guns at intervals during the night. Musketry fire was slack this morning. No news of any kind. Could get no messengers to go out with a letter, though it was made so small that it went into half a quill; but it had been spread abroad that the enemy would kill any one leaving the garrison, and this deterred any one from endeavouring to carry a letter to our friends, no matter how great the reward might be that was held out.
Many officers and men are laid up with fever and dysentery. Our stored attah was nearly expended, and in a few days' time we should have to commence that which we had ground, which now amounted to about 500 maunds. At 2 P.M. the firing of all kinds was very slack; indeed, for long intervals, not a shot was to be heard. The officers, also, who relieve one another as look-outs on the top of the Residency, reported that a smaller number of men than usual were to be seen on the move. An Eurasian attached to the party working Dr. Fayrer's guns, was shot dead while working the 18-pounder guns this day, by a man said to be not sixty yards off. Several convalescents have been moved from the hospital to other quarters, and with happy results both as regards themselves and those left in the hospital, which greatly wanted a free circulation of air. Towards dusk many shells came in, and one exploded in the second brigade square; fortunately, it was seen coming, and no harm ensued. The powder magazine was made as secure as possible, by putting heavy beams across the roof, and covering them with two feet of earth. A fine night, but very much firing till midnight.
August 5th.—Sent off another letter to the officer commanding the relieving force, of which we could gain no intelligence; though we conjecture the advance of our force had been arrested by the enemy at the bridge of Bunnee. Heavy showers during the day. Musket-proof shutters were completed for the embrasure of the 18-pounders to the left of the hospital. Many of the convalescent patients removed to the Thug Gaol Barracks, which gave them a slight change, and created more room in the hospital. Efforts made to clear some of the drains, and reduce the stench which pervades the garrison. At sunset the enemy were seen at a distance in some force, with drums and fifes playing, marching from the direction of the river towards the Cawnpore road. Soon after, they threw many shells into us, and continued to do so for some time. About 8 P.M. all became tolerably quiet.
August 6th.—The enemy fired several shots, from a 24-pounder, at the Residency, one of which unfortunately fractured the arm of Ensign Studdy of the 32nd Foot, as he sat down to breakfast; rendering amputation necessary. This gun caused us great annoyance, from its calibre, and firing so frequently as it did into the Residency. Unfortunately its distance from our position, and its situation in the midst of buildings, rendered it impossible to take it by the bayonet; neither could our gunners see it, so that to shell it was our only resource.
Less firing than usual. The enemy again ascended into the upper story of Johannes' house, and from thence caused much annoyance to the position of the brigade mess, where the cooking went on. They succeeded in killing a sweeper. Terrible heat; Brigadier Inglis suffered from its effects. Various rumours afloat in the garrison; some of which seemed to have originated either with a servant of Mr. Gubbins, or some member of his post. The Residency is at last to be entirely vacated by the officers of the 32nd and others now resident there. Last night was spent in earthing in the magazine, as several shots had lately gone unpleasantly near, A carcase came into the Begum Kotee in the afternoon, into the room in which Lieutenant James (wounded), Mr. Lawrence (wounded), and Ensign Keir (sick), were lying; it set some of the things in the room on fire, but was speedily extinguished without injury to any one. Much bugling, drumming, and firing towards evening. After dark the enemy fired heavily from their guns in front of the Residency. Our engineers and a working party were busy all this night at Innes' house, making a battery for an 18-pounder, to be moved down in order to endeavour to silence a 24-pounder of the enemy's, which had been doing much mischief by firing through the church and Residency. About 9 P.M. a sepoy of the 1st Oude Irregular Infantry, who took out a letter to the officer commanding the relieving force, came in; he stated that he had delivered it, and that he had received a letter in reply which he had lost in coming in to us. Half-an-hour later, another man, a sepoy of the 48th, who had been sent into the town two days previously to try and gain intelligence, returned, and stated he had been confined several days by the enemy; and he in a great measure corroborated the statement of the sepoy of the 1st Oude Irregular Infantry: this loss of the letter was a great mortification to us, as it might have explained what was at this time inexplicable—the retirement towards Cawnpore of General Havelock's force, after apparently the greatest success on this side the Ganges.
August 7th.—We worked hard at our new battery at Innes' house, and got it ready; an 18-pounder was taken down and in position by daylight, whence it commenced firing, and soon silenced the enemy's guns. The enemy, however, fired heavily from some others, and about 8 A.M. a shell burst close to the Residency and mortally wounded two of the best men in the 32nd, the one a colour-sergeant and the other an orderly-room clerk. Captain Waterman of the 13th was wounded through the hand by a musket ball at Innes' post this morning. Several cases of cholera. Every effort made to increase the number of men to grind wheat for the force. Exceedingly heavy rain during the middle of the day. The hose into our mine near Johannes's house got damped, and required all the tamping to be removed. Our position greatly flooded, which rendered it most wretched for those who had to be in trenches night and day. The artillery canteen closed, in consequence of the gross irregularities which prevailed, and its contents removed to the canteen of the 32nd Regiment, from which the artillery were in future supplied. The heavy rain seemed to make the stench which pervaded the place worse, and this evening it was fearful. Several cases of cholera occurred to-day. The enemy's cannon knocked down a portion of the verandah of the Residency, also the verandah of Delprat's house at the Cawnpore battery: a few shells came in in the evening.