Back to Fatehgarh and on to Cawnpore

Colonel Smith’s boat, although some way ahead, was not having an easier time. While passing Singhirampur, they were attacked by a massive barrage let loose from the sepoys of the 41st and the 10th Ghalla Regiment. Armed not just with muskets, they reigned a perfect storm of grape and round shot from two well-placed guns, leading Colonel Smith to exclaim he had never passed through such a hail of grape in his life. The remaining boatman, Conductor Rohan, one of his children and the youngest, Miss Goldie, were killed outright. Doctor Maltby and Lieut. Swetenham were both injured. The boat’s rudder was smashed, but nevertheless, Colonel Smith managed to steer it until it ran aground on a sandbank at 9 pm.

The Parade Ground Massacre

The remaining members of Major Robertson’s boat were taken back to Fatehgarh. They arrived back at the station on the 5th of July. Here, they were kept in confinement in the Nawab’s Fort for 18 days. Joining them in their imprisonment were 21 Indian Christians and Anglo- Indians, who had been captured in the town and its environs. Of the 34 prisoners from the boats, 23 were children. Strangely enough, two Indian Christian prisoners were released – Joseph Dore and Drum Major Knowles- to pray for the recovery of a cholera-stricken Nawab. He recovered, and they were set free.
Why the fugitives were put to death is not really known. Whether it was the final way of tying the Nawab to the mutineers, revenge or plain bloodlust, is unclear. But on the 23rd of July, 22 women, both from the boats and those caught in the town, and all the children were transported by bullock cart from the prison out on the parade ground. It was raining. The 10 men were taken by a different road to Madden’s Bungalow, along the Qadri Darwaza Road. J.R. Madden, his wife, three children and two sisters were a part of the first boats to Cawnpore, and their house once stood where today All Saints Memorial Church is, the compound outlining exactly those of the church. The men arrived first and were taken into the yellow bungalow, their arms tied. One after the other was called out, and as they came out of the bungalow, they were cut down by swords, their corpses piled onto a rain-drenched heap.

“One little boy begged them hard not to kill him and gave them something valuable which he had in a tin case, in hopes of being spared. The savages, of course, took what he gave but would not let him off. When they were about to kill him, the poor thing ran here and there, and at last crept under some bedsteads which were there, where he was pierced through and cut to pieces.”

The women were assembled close to the well and made to sit with their backs against the wall, facing a gun loaded with grapeshot. Whether intentionally or not, the gun misfired twice, and it needed several loads of grapeshot to finally kill them all. Miss Sutherland managed to survive until the end untouched. Begging the sepoys to save her as God had chosen to protect her, she was nevertheless cut down by swords. The bodies were flung into a nearby disused well, today called the Memorial Well. It was a dry, unused well, and it stands on the western side of the compound at a slightly higher elevation. The exact scene of the massacre can be seen by looking westwards from the Memorial Well towards the Circular Road.

Kale Khan was caught by the sepoys and executed in Farukkhabad at the entrance of the red stone gates. First shot by two discharges of grapeshot, he was then dispatched with a sword and then beheaded. His head was suspended from a tree, and his body was buried in a small Muslim cemetery by the gate. So ended the ordeals of the survivors of Manpur.