Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1879 — The Hereie Deaths of Cavagnari and His Gallant Band. [ARTICLE]

The Hereie Deaths of Cavagnari and His Gallant Band.

The beat story of the Cabul massacre ia the following, taken down from the line of. one off the survivors and furnished to the London Standard. Says the writer: I have just had a long conversation with one oi Sir Louis Cavagnari’s servants who escaped; he and three others are, as far as is known, the sole survivors of the hideous massacre, of which doubtless you have been already informed by wire. The particulars of the occurrence are as follows: At about half-past seven a. m. on the 2d crowds of armed Afghan soldiery were perceived rushing toward tne residency. Sir Ixraiß Cavagnari must have expected something, as ne ordered all the Sowars inside, and had the gales closed. Soon a mob of about four thousand men had collected. The gate was broken down, and in a few seconds the Sowars, though they fought nobly, were borne down by numbers and massacred to a man. A few soldiers, with the four white men, met the assault of the infuriated throng, who, wild with fanaticism and the exultation of feeling their prey in their grasp, swarmed to the attack. No flinching, no wild firing, was to be seen in the gallant little band that met and repelled the attack. Again and again did the Afghans, like a recurring wave, forced on by the pressure of those behind, vainly try to win their way into the hoqse. Bach effort but increased the heap of slain that fast accumulated round the house. Cowed by their reception, they withdrew to the cover available from walls'and houses, and from this vantage-ground poured a hailof lead into every opening in the building. Gallant Hamilton, so lately adorned with the Victoria cross, adorned it with

Jhis heroic bravely. He exposed him«lf undauntedly to the hottest tire; for Red to bear a charmed ;h a bullet pierced his nobly, fell. Dr. aid and a bullet speedtoo. Jenkyns was the avagnari, still unhurt, be gradually-lessening ice inspired CheerIntely they dealt out a treacherous Afghan, ild strike while he dered the treasureemptied into the tire momentarily ceased. The Afghans, yielding to their greed, and thinking resistance over, eroded to seize the glittering rupees. I® , a moment our men concentrated their lire on the crowd struggling for the plunder. A tire more infernal than before was soon reopened by the attacker.*, and now, to their other niisfori tunes, the magazine of the defenders 1 exploded, and the roof was set on tire. With numbers .reduced l»y half, (ire wttVin, bullets without,nothing daunted; each man stood to his post; but the rei duedfl numbers told—a sudden rush of the clemy gained the door; that feeble

barrier gave way; yet no sign of fear was shown—all met their death fight A surging throng filled the room whefle Cavagnari, a jemadar and three natives were. Cavagnari’s revolver apokevthree times the death-knell of as many Afghans, and then a blow froir. a heavy Afghan knife laid him low. His mimldrer did not long survive; with one blkw of his saber the jemadar swept off his head. A few more such blows he maqe, and then he lay beside his master. Bi* one escaped; then arrator of the tale to me; he hid in a bath. The roof was now blazing, a part had fallen on the dead body of Cavagnari, so the crowd did not wait to search, but dragging the bodies of the killed from the burning house, they did not search for any concealed persons, and so my informant escaped. He was a man who was thoroughly conversant with the Afghan tongue, and, being a Mussulman, he managed after his escape from the house to pass himseli off as a Cabuli.