On the 14th the moveable column recommenced its march, and after dislodging the rebels from a strong position at Aong, pushed on for Pandoo Nuddee, at the bridge of which place the enemy had prepared another strong position. Here, also, by the promptitude and admirable tactics of General Havelock, the rebels were completely routed; both on this occasion and at Aong they left behind them a number of heavy guns and a quantity of ammunition. It was on hearing the intelligence of the defeat of his troops at the Pandoo Nuddee that Nana Sahib put the finishing stroke to the atrocious conduct which has rendered his name an abhorrence to the whole civilized world, and which turned this warfare on the part of the English into “a most righteous cause” indeed. On the 15th of July this diabolical wretch filled up the measure of his iniquities; for it was on hearing that the bridge over the Pandoo Nuddee had been forced and his army driven back, that he ordered the immediate massacre of all the English women and children still in his possession.
Between four in the afternoon of the 15th, and nine in the morning of the 16th of July, 206 persons, mostly women and children of gentle birth, comprising the survivors of the massacre of 27th June and the captured fugitives from Futteghur,—who had been confined for a fortnight in a small building which has since been known in India as the Beebeegur, or House of the Ladies, in England as the House of the Massacre,—were butchered with the most barbarous atrocity, and their bodies thrown into a dry well, situated behind some trees which grew hard by. Our illustration, taken from a photograph, shows the Mausoleum erected over the well, and part of the garden which covers the site of the House of Massacre. Just within the doorway, at top of the flight of steps, may be seen the carved pediment which closes the mouth of the well. Around this pediment are carved the words:—
Sacred to the perpetual memory of a great
Company of Christian people, chiefly women
and children. XVI. day of July MDCCCLVII.
On the pediment has been erected, since our view was taken, an emblematical figure of an angel in front of a tall cross, carved in marble by Baron Marochetti.
At daybreak, on the 16th, Havelock’s column again moved on, the troops being strongly in hope of being able to save the wives and children of the murdered garrison of Cawnpoor, being ignorant of their brutal massacre. After a march of 16 miles the army halted in a mango grove at the village of Maharajpoor, to take refreshment and a slight rest in the shade from the powerful sun, before engaging the Nana, who was strongly posted about two miles off.
Action near Cawnpoor, on the Afternoon of the 16th of July 1857.
The camp and baggage being left here under proper escort, the column again moved at 2 o’clock P.M. The Fusiliers led, followed by two guns; then came the 78th Highlanders, in rear of whom was the central battery under Captain Maude; the 64th and 84th had two guns more in the rear, and the regiment of Ferozepoor closed the column.
Nana Sahib had taken up a strong position at the village of Aherwa, where the grand trunk road joined that which led to Cawnpoor. His entrenchments had cut and rendered impassable both roads, and his heavy guns, seven in number, were disposed along his position, which consisted of a series of villages. Behind these the infantry, consisting of mutinous troops and his own armed followers, numbering in all about 5000, was disposed for defence.