The Cawnpore Massacre Memorials. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 31 October 1874.
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The Cawnpore Massacre Memorials. The surrender or capture of the fugitive Nana Sahib, Dhoondoo Punth Rajah of Bithoor, whose life has been justly forfeit, during the past seventeen years, for crimes of great enormity, was reported towards the end of last week. A person calling himself Nana Sahib has actually given himself up to our ally, the Maharajah Scindia at Gwalior, confessing his share in the mutiny or rebellion of 1857, but denying that he ordered the slaughter of our people at Cawnpore. He says that he has been wandering about many years in Bhootan and Assam. This man is now in British custody, and awaits the proof of his identity, which some doubt. Bala, the brother of Nana Sahib, is also said to have been captured. The following description of the present state of the places at Cawnpore memorable for the horrid massacre of so many Englishmen and their wives and children, seventeen years ago, is borrowed from a letter of the Daily News' special correspondent in India, which appeared last Monday. The drive from the railway station to the European cantonments is pleasant and shaded. At a bend in the road comes into view a broad, flat, treeless parade-ground. This plain lies within a circle of foliage, above which, on the southeastern side, rise the balconies and flat tops of a long range of barracks built in detached blocks, while around the rest of the circle the trees shade the bungalows of the cantonment. Near the centre of this level space is an irregular inclosure defined by a shallow sunk wall and low quickset hedge, and in the middle of this inclosure rises the ornate and not wholly satisfactory structure known as the "Memorial Church." It is built on the site of the old dragoon hospital, which was the very focus of the agony of the siege. The outline of the famous earthwork is almost wholly obliterated; only in places is it to be dimly recognised by brick-discoloured lines, and a low raised line on the smooth maidan. The inclosure now existing has no reference to the outlines of the intrenchment. That inclosure, when entered, is found to be littered with the appliances of building, piles of bricks, puddles of mortar, and baulks of timber; for the " Memorial Church " has lapsed into the hands of the Public Works Department, and, although seventeen years have elapsed since the tragedy and the heroism it is meant to commemorate, it is still unfinished. But, littered as it is, there is much of deep interest inside this inclosure. We come first on a railed-in memorial tomb bearing an inscription in raised letters, on a cross let into the tesselated pavement. " In three graves within this inclosure lie the remains of Major Edward Vibart, 2nd Bengal Cavalry, and about seventy officers and soldiers who, after escaping from the massacre at Cawnpore on June 27, 1857, were captured by the rebels at Sheorapore and murdered on July 1." The inmates of these graves were originally buried elsewhere, and were removed hither when the inclosure was formed. In another part of the inclosure is a raised tomb, the slab of which bears the inscription-" This stone marks a spot which lay within Wheeler's intrenchment, and covers the remains and is sacred to the memoryof those who were the first to meet their death when beleaguered by mutineers and rebels, in June, 1857." Two only lie in this grave, Mr. Murphy and a lady who died of fever. These two perished on the first day of the siege, and had the privilege of being decently interred within the precincts of the intrenchment. After the first day of the siege there was scant leisure for funeral rites. To find the last resting-place of the remaining dead of this siege we must quit the inclosure and walk across the maidan to a spot among the trees by the roadside under the shadow of No. 4 Barrack. There was an empty well here when the siege began ; three weeks after, when the siege ended, this well contained the bodies of 250 British people. With daylight the battle raged around that sepulchre; but when the night came the slain of the day were borne thither with stealthy step and scant attendance. Now the well is filled up, and above it, inside a small, ornamental inclosure, formed by iron railings, rises a monument which bears the following inscription :-" In a well under this inclosure were laid by the bands of their fellows in suffering the bodies of men, women, and children who died hard-by during the heroic defence of Wheeler's intrenchment when beleaguered by the rebel Nana." Below the inscription is this apposite quotation from Psalm cxli. :-" Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth. But mine eyes are unto Thee, O God the Lord." At the corners of the flower plot are small crosses bearing individual names. One commemorates Sir George Parker, the cantonment magistrate ; a second, Captain Jenkins; a third, Lieutenant Saunders and the men of the 84th Regiment; a fourth, Lieutenant Glanville and the men of the Madras Fusiliers. The Memorial Church is in the form of a cross, and when finished will be a handsome structure as regards its interior. It will always be interesting by reason of its site and of the memorial tablets on the walls of its interior. In the left transept is a tablet "To the memory of the Engineers of the East Indian Railway, who died and were killed in the great insurrection of 1857. Erected in affectionate remembrance by their brother Engineers in the North-West Provinces." On the left side of the nave are several tablets. One is to the memory of poor young John Nicklen Martin, killed in the boats at Suttee Chowrah Ghaut. Another commemorates three officers, two sergeants, two corporals, a drummer, and twenty privates of the 34th Regiment killed at the (second) battle of Cawnpore on Nov. 28, 1857; that day on which the Gwalior contingent, seduced into rebellion by Tantia Topee, made itself so unpleasant to General Windham, the "Cawnpore Runners," and other regiments of that officer's command. A third is ' To the memory of E. G. Chalwin, 2nd Light Cavalry, and his wife Louisa, who both perished during the siege of Cawnpore in July, 1857. These are they which came out of great tribulation." A fourth commemorates Captain Gordon and Lieutenant Hensley, of the 82nd Foot, also victims of the Gwalior contingent. In the right of the nave there is a tablet "Sacred to the memory of Philip Hayes Jackson, who, with Jane, his wife, and her brother, Ralf Blyth Croker, were massacred by rebels at Cawnpore on 27th June." Another is to Lieutenant Angelo, of the 16th Grenadiers Bengal Native Infantry, who also fell in the boat massacre; and a third is to the memory of the gallant Stuart Beatson, who was Havelock's Adjutant-General, and who, dying as he was of cholera, did his work at Pandoo Nuddee and Cawnpore in a dhoolie. In the right transept are tablets in memory of the officers of the Connaught Rangers and of the officers and men of the 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment, "who fell in defence of Lucknow and Cawnpore and in the subsequent campaign "-fourteen officers and 448 " women and men." And here, too, is perhaps the most affecting memorial of any-a tablet " In memory of Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Wainwright, Miss Wainwright, Mrs. Hill, forty-three soldiers' wives, and fifty-five children murdered in Cawnpore in June, 1857." There are few to whom the details of that fell scene are not familiar. What a contrast between the turmoil and devilry of it and the serene calmness of the all but solitude the Ghaut now presents ! On the knolls of the further side snug bungalows nestle among the trees, under the verandah of one of which a lady is playing with her children. The village of Suttee Chowrah, on the bluff on the left of the Ghaut, where Tantia Topee's sepoys were concealed, no longer exists ; a pretty bungalow and its compound occupy its site. The little temple on the water's edge by the Ghaut is slowly mouldering into decay ; on the plaster of the coping of its river wall you may see the marks of the treacherous bullets. The stair which, built against its wall, led down to the water's edge has disappeared. Tantia Topee's dispositions for the perpetration of the treachery could not now succeed, for the Ganges has changed its course, and there is deep water close in shore at the Ghaut. In the stream nearest to the Oude side the river has cast up a long narrow island, in the fertile mud of which melons are cultivated where once whistled the shot from the guns on the Oude side of the river. A Brahmin priest is placidly sunning himself on the river platform of the temple, over the dome of which hangs the foliage of a peepul tree. A dhobie is washing the shirts of a sahib in the stream that once was dyed with the blood of the sahibs. There is no monument here of the terrible tragedy. The scene of the massacre lies some distance higher up the river. As we cross the Ganges Canal, .the native city lying on our left, there rises up before us the rich mass of foliage that forms the outer screen of the beautiful Memorial Gardens. The hue of the greenery would be sombre but for the blossoms -which relieve it, emblem of the Divine hope which mitigated the gloom of despair for our countrywomen who perished so cruelly on this spot. Of the Beebeeghur, the term by which among the natives is known the bungalow where the massacre was perpetrated, not one stone now remains on another, but neither its memory nor its name will be lost for all time. Natives are strolling in the shady, flower-bordered, walks of the Memorial Gardens, the prohibition which long debarred their entrance having been wisely removed. In the centre of the garden rises, fringed with cypresses, a low mound, the summit of which is crowned by a circular screen, or border, of light and beautiful open-work architecture. The circular space inclosed is sunk, and from the centre of this sunk space there rises a pedestal on which stands the marble presentment of an angel. There is no need to explain what episode in the tragic story this monument commemorates ; the inscription round the capital of the pedestal tells its tale succinctly indeed, but the words burn. "Sacred," it runs, "to the perpetual memory of the great company of Christian people, chiefly women and children, who near this spot were cruelly massacred by the followers of the rebel Nana Dhoondoo Punth of Bithoor ; and cast, the dying with the dead, into the well below on the 15th day of July, 1857." A few paces to the north-west of the monument is the spot where stood the bungalow in which the massacre was done; and now, where the sight they saw maddened our countrymen seventeen years ago to a frenzy of revenge, there bloom roses and violets. And a step further on, in a thicket of arbor vite trees and cypresses, is the "Memorial Churchyard," with its many nameless mounds, for here were buried not a few who died during the long occupation of Cawnpore, and in the combats around it. Here there is a monument to Mr. Thornhill, the Judge of Futtehghur, Mary his wife, and their two children, who perished in the massacre. Mr. Thornhill was one of the men brought out from the bungalow and shot earlier in the afternoon than the women's time came. Another monument bears this inscription :-" Sacred to the memory of the women and children of the 32nd, this monument is raised by twenty men of the same regiment, who were passing through Cawnpore, Nov. 21, 1857." An officer who formerly belonged to the company lays a stone to the memory of the women and children of the first company 61st Bengal Infantry, and among the tombstones are those of gallant Douglas Campbell of the 78th, Woodford of the second battalion Rifle Brigade, and Young of the 4th Bengal Native Infantry. Our well-known travelling artist, Mr. William Simpson, was in India two or three years after the massacre. He made the sketches we have now engraved, showing the appearance, at that time, both of the Well at Cawnpore and the Slaughter Ghaut. He writes of them as follows :- " On my visiting the well in 1860 it remained in the same condition as at the time of the massacre. It was an ordinary brick well, similar to those common in that and other parts of India. The mouth was circular, and built a foot or two above the surface of the ground. The portion not occupied by the bodies had been filled up with earth, and was then built over level with the mouth. But in 1860, three years after the event, the decay of the bodies had caused the top to sink a few inches. At one side was the small Iona cross, of red sandstone, erected in memory of the women and children of the 32nd Regiment. This monument is shown in the Illustration. There was another flat stone, but not seen in my sketch, on the other side. It bore the following inscription :-' Sacred to the memory of the women and children of the late ill-fated first company 6th Battalion Bengal Artillery, who were slaughtered near this spot by the mutineers, on July 16, 1857. This monument is erected by a non-commissioned officer who formerly belonged to the first company 6th Battalion. "Spare thy people, O Lord; and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God ?" Joel ii. 17. " Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things." Joel ii. 21.' "At that time, in 1860, it was under consideration what to do with the spot. A commemorative church was one of the proposals, but this was given up. At last it was settled that the well should be built over and the place inclosed. Colonel Yule, of the Bengal Engineers, produced a design for a screen in Gothic, octagonal in plan, which was approved of and carried out. Lord and Lady Canning (Lord Canning had been Governor-General during the time of the mutiny) commissioned, at their own expense, Baron Marochetti to produce a figure in white marble. The top of the well, having been covered over with a structure of ornamental design, formed the base for this statue-the Angel of Pity. The space around, for some distance, was laid out as a public garden, and is now the promenade of Cawnpore. " The Slaughter Ghaut at Cawnpore, as I saw it in 1860, is shown in another sketch. This was known before as the Suttee Chowrah Ghaut till the fearful event of 1857 had fixed upon it the now historical appellation of 'The Slaughter Ghaut.' It is on the south side of Cawnpore, and in this view the spectator is looking down the Ganges. A path led from Wheeler's intrenchment almost straight to this point, passing under the wall of the temple. By this the victims were marched to be embarked in the boats-large native barges, the same as those seen in my sketch. To the south of the temple are gardens, with places on the banks to raise water from the river for irrigation. All along here men were concealed, who, at a given signal, as soon as the embarkation commenced, began the murderous fusillade, from which four men only escaped. An order had been given to spare the women, who were marched away to a house near the well, where they remained till their slaughter, which followed some weeks later."<br></p>
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31 October 1874<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1874-10-31T00:00:00Z/11</div>
The Illustrated London News