REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE, 239 



at Meerut, where his father was barber to the 44th Regiment, 

 he was the pet of the soldiers, till at the ill-fated Khyber Pass 

 in 1842, when only Brydon escaped, the barber was among 

 the killed. The widow then brought little Tom to Chupra, 

 where she had relatives. When the 8oth Regiment came 

 back from the Punjab campaign and was sent to Dinapore 

 in 1849, Tom's elder brother, Hira Lall, who was barber to the 

 Regiment, sent for the youngster and taught him the art of 

 shaving. In 1853 Tom went with the Regiment to Burma, 

 and was present at the night attack on, and capture of, Marta- 

 ban, also the taking of Rangoon, where he remained two years. 

 In 1855 tne Regiment came to Dum Dum, where it broke up ; 

 but Captain Christie and Dr. Taylor went with a body of 

 volunters to join the y8th Regiment then at Poona, Tom 

 accompanied them, and after staying there a year, followed 

 them to Persia, where he witnessed the taking of Bushire Fort, 

 Khoushab, and Mahamra, was there seven months, then back 

 to Calcutta. During the stirring times of the Mutiny he was 

 first stationed at Chinsurah, under the gallant Outram, and saw 

 Havelock disarm the mutinous Sepoys. In those days Ranee- 

 gunge was the terminus of the E.I.R., and thence the y8th 

 marched to Bilung Sihair, where it defeated the mutineers, 

 and away to Fatehpore, which was sacked and looted, then to 

 Cawnpore, where the battle rage all day on the open maidan^ 

 about twenty thousand mutineers facing the four thousand 

 British and loyal native troops. The y8th, the 64th, the Madras 

 Fusiliers, two companies of Sikhs, and Captain Morris' bullock 

 battery from Benares, were the troops in action. George Augus- 

 tus Stack, now at Bankipore, was one of the Volunteer Cavalry. 

 They fought all day, camping on the open fields at night, and 

 next day attacked Cawnpore and carried the Cavalry Barracks, 

 the mutineers skeedaddling during the night, though ere going 

 the fiends murdered poor Miss Wheeler, daughter of the Gene- 

 ral; Nana Row, the foul Mahratta, got off, and was supposed to 



