The comprehensive history of England : civil and military, religious, intellectual, and social, from the earliest period to the suppression of the Sepoy revolt . and one of cavalry, mustering iu all 38C0men, having 115 European officers, while theother British troops scarcely exceeded 170. SirHugh Massey Wheeler was in command of thestation; and as the cantonments were on a plain,and without any defences, he proceeded to throwup a bi-eastwork of earth round the hospital and 756 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Civil axd Military. several smaller buildings, which served as ashelter for the Europeans when t
The comprehensive history of England : civil and military, religious, intellectual, and social, from the earliest period to the suppression of the Sepoy revolt . and one of cavalry, mustering iu all 38C0men, having 115 European officers, while theother British troops scarcely exceeded 170. SirHugh Massey Wheeler was in command of thestation; and as the cantonments were on a plain,and without any defences, he proceeded to throwup a bi-eastwork of earth round the hospital and 756 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Civil axd Military. several smaller buildings, which served as ashelter for the Europeans when the storm ar-rived. And its coming was not long native regiments rebelled, and went ofT in abody to Nana Sahib, who now found himself ina condition to take the field. He therefore im-mediately marched npon Cawnpore, plundered the treasury, and took possession of the maga-zine, that unfortunately had not been destroyed;and thus furnished with the sinews of war, hecommenced on the 7th of June the siege of theslight earthen fortress that had been hastilythrown up. It was a defence better suited to re-sist a temporary riot than to withstand an army. Cawnpore.—From a drawing by W. Carpenter, jun.; engrared in the lUuBtrated London News. or hold out against a siege, and tlie astonisluneutwas that it could have resisted for a single dav,more especially when of the 900 persons containedwithin it 5!)0 were women, children, and non-com- Ibatants. But this brave garrison continued their ,resistance till the 21th, although the cannonade jof the besiegers was heavy and their attacks fre- ,(lueut, and although the heat, fatigue, and pri-vations endured in the defence were such as might have quelled the bravest. At last, whencourage had done its utmost, and endurance beenwasted out, tlie garrison was induced to surren-der, on the promise that they should be allowedto retire in safety to Allahabad. They were !escorted by the rebels to the river side, but theretlie greater part of
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