File:P10. The New Cawnpore Battery (cropped).jpg

English: Plate 10. The New Cawnpore Battery.

This is a faithful representation of the Cawnpore Battery, when strengthened by the reinforcements under General Havelock. The reader must not, however, suppose that this strong position gives him an idea of what this post was before the arrival of the relief: there was then no woodwork, and no man could have walked unscathed to the place occupied by those guns and palisades in the illustration. The sentry on that post had to crawl, to his position, and many men were shot while doing so, and also when on the look-out, as round shot kept continually crashing through the miserable earthwork which formed our sole defence. The fire was so hot as to render it impossible to strengthen the position, and whatever repairs we contrived to make during the night were demolished by the enemy during the course of the following day. It was emphatically the most dangerous and desperate place to hold in the whole line of defence; and, as the necessary consequence, many lives were lost. Here fell dead at his post, on the extreme front, where the palisade now stands, that gallant and promising young officer, Lieutenant Arthur, of the 7th Light Cavalry. Here, too, fell, pierced through the brain, Lieutenant Lewin, of the Artillery; and here, on the 25th of September, the very morning of the day upon which succour arrived, Captain Radcliffe, of the 7th Light Cavalry, received a mortal wound from a shot from an eighteen-pounder. Poor Radcliffe! it was a sad, though not an unbefitting, ending of his glorious career. Throughout the siege, whenever a dangerous or a laborious duty was to be undertaken, Radcliffe was the foremost to volunteer. He was ever the first, whether with sword or with spade. As true a Christian as a soldier, he has gone to his reward. But even the sound of the approaching relief did not suffice to dispel our sorrow on hearing of his wound, and it was with very heavy hearts that we laid him in the grave. The large aperture in the foreground is the mouth of a mine which was sunk to meet and blow up similar works on the part of the enemy, who were supposed to be pushing offensive mines towards the battery. If they had commenced any such works, however, they were abandoned on the approach of our miners, who, although they carried on their gallery to an unusual length, could not detect them.

Sketches & Incidents of the Siege of Lucknow. From Drawings Made during the Siege, by Clifford Henry Mecham, Lieutenant Madras Army, with descriptive notices by George Couper, esq. late secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Oude. First edition, tinted lithographed title with vignette, 27 views on 17 tinted lithographed plates, folio, Day & Son, published 1 Oct 1858.