The Republic
October 1857
NATIONAL NEWS
Steamship Central America Sinks In Storm
Over $2 Million in Gold Lost
On September 12, the USS Central America, a side-wheel steamer carrying nearly six hundred passengers returning from the California Gold Rush and heavily laden with between 13 and 15 tons of gold sank in a great storm somewhere off the coast of the Carolinas. We’re saddened to report that most of the souls on board perished.
On September 3, 1857, 477 passengers and 101 crew left the Panamanian port of Colón, sailing for New York City under the command of William Lewis Herndon. After a stop in Havana, the ship continued north.
On September 9, the ship was caught up in a furious hurricane while off the coast of the Carolinas. On September 11, the high winds and heavy surf had shredded her sails, she was taking on water, and her boiler was threatening to go out. When a leak developed in one of the seals to the paddle wheels, her fate was sealed. At noon that day, her boiler could no longer maintain fire and steam pressure dropped, shutting down both the pumps keeping the water at bay and the paddle wheels that kept her pointed into the wind. The passengers and crew flew the ship's flag upside to try a signal a passing ship. No one came.
A bucket brigade was formed and her passengers and crew spent the night fighting a losing battle against the rising water. During the eye of the storm, attempts were made to get the boiler running again, but these all failed. When the second half of the storm struck, the ship was on the verge of foundering. Without power, the storm was carrying the ship with it, so the strong winds would not abate. The next morning, two ships were spotted, including the brig Marine. 153 people, primarily women and children, managed to make their way over in lifeboats. But the Central America remained in an area of intense winds and heavy seas. The ship and most of her company were pulled away from rescue. Ultimately the ship and the roughly 425 people still on board sank at around 8 pm that night.
Loss of Central America Fuels Financial Panic
The storm clouds of recession continue to gather. Led by agriculture, individual sectors of the economy have continued to draw against their bank deposits, putting greater and greater pressure on the gold reserves that banks rely upon to back their privately issued notes.
With the August collapse of The New York office of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust, many of the New York banks that were creditors of Ohio Life have failed. A concurrent delay of gold shipments from California has contributed to the despair. Now, with the sinking of the Central America, the problem has been compounded. The loss of the Central America sent its huge load of gold -- some estimates say a value equal to one-fifth of the gold in Wall Street coffers -- to the bottom of the sea. With that gold, it had been hoped that banks could withstand any run; without it, those that have managed to survive to this point are at grave risk of failure.
General William Tecumseh Sherman, a prominent New York banker told the Republic that the "absolute loss of this treasure will likely swell the confusion and panic of the day."
Kansas Assembly Approves Pro-Slavery Constitution
The constitutional convention held in September, 1857 in Lecompton, Kansas Territory has approved a constitution that supports the existence of slavery in the proposed state and protects rights of slaveholders. In addition, the constitution provides for a referendum that allows voters the choice of allowing more slaves to the territory.
The convention was boycotted by free-soilers so the referendum concerning additional slaves to the Kansas territory was passed overwhelmingly. There is much fear that this latest development in the Kansas saga could reignite violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the territory.
Some Washington insiders say President Buchanan strongly supports the Lecompton plan and will make strong efforts to steer the referendum through the U.S. Congress.
Immigrants Murdered in Utah Territory
Indians blamed but suspicion falls on Mormons
On September 11, a California-bound wagon train of approximately forty families, mostly from Marion, Crawford, Carroll, and Johnson counties in Arkansas, was reportedly attacked by Indians at the mountain-ringed Mountain Meadows in southwestern Utah territory, a widely known stopover on the old Spanish Trail. It is said that most of the 120 immigrants in the party -- including women and children -- were murdered.
The Utah Paiute tribe has been implicated in the attack. However, there is some suspicion that members of the Mormon sect in Utah also may have been involved, either directly or indirectly.
Only a few months earlier popular Mormon leader Parley P. Pratt was murdered in Arkansas by the ex-husband of one of Pratt's plural wives. It is thought that the Mormons may have incited the Paiutes to attack the wagon train in retaliation. In addition, Mormon leader Brigham Young declared martial law in the territory on September 15 -- a possible first step toward open hostilities between the sect and the U.S. government.
WORLD NEWS
Indian Mutiny -- Brits Retake Delhi
After nearly two months of laying seige to the city, British forces attacked Delhi on September 14. The British broke through Delhi’s Kashmiri gate and after a week of fierce street fighting have retaken the city.
The plan of attack called for a 1,000-man column from the 75th Highlanders to mount the Kashmir Bastion, while another column from the 52nd (Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire) Light Infantry would force the Kashmir Gate, enabling the British troops to fight their way into the city itself. Other columns would breach the Lahore Gate. A total of 5,000 men took part in the British assault on Delhi, whose estimated 30,000 sepoy defenders reportedly were under the command of Bakht Khan, an artillery officer who had 40 years of military experience.
The attack began 3 a.m. on September 14. Not all went well. The 75th Highlanders outran its ladder-bearers and was left exposed in the 16-foot moat, where they were raked by withering fire from the mutineers on the walls above them. When the ladder parties caught up with them, General John Nicholson led the survivors in a charge through a breach that had been made in the wall by his supporting artillery.
Colonel George Campbell rushed his column to within striking distance of the critical Kashmir Gate and sent a small party of Bengal Engineers, under Lieutenant Duncan Home, to pack explosives under the gate. A firing party of the 52nd covered them as best it could, but the exposed sappers drew terrible fire. Half of them were killed and Lieutenant Philip Salkeld was mortally wounded. Sergeant John Smith finally managed to touch off the explosion that blew a hole in the gate. As Bugler Robert Hawthorne of the 52nd sounded the attack, the British troops poured through the opening to be met only by the charred corpses of the sepoy defenders.
Now within the city gates, three columns joined forces in an area between the Kashmir Gate and the Anglican church. The fourth column, whose artillery failed to appear amid the confusion, had been forced to retreat beyond the field of fire due to heavy casualties. The troops within the Kashmir Gate had to make their way some 250 yards down a 10-foot-wide lane flanked by flat-topped buildings, from which sepoys maintained a constant rain of fire. Making matters worse were two artillery pieces at the head of the lane and some 1,000 mutineers waiting to fire on the approaching British from atop the so-called Burn Bastion.
The 1st Bengal Fusiliers took the lead in making the dash up the lane toward the Lahore Gate, which had to be opened to admit other British units. Powerless against the sheets of rifle fire from the rooftops, the fusiliers fell back. Nicholson then personally led a new attack on the Lahore Gate. Just as he flourished his saber, however, a mutineer fired on him point-blank from a window. Badly wounded, he mustered the strength to prop himself up on one elbow and once again shouted encouragement to his men, but his troops were unable to force this death trap and had to retire. In six hours, the British had lost 66 officers and 1,104 men.
On September 16, British forces captured an enemy magazine and took 171 guns and vast stores of ammunition. The narrow lane leading to the Lahore Gate was widened and made navigable by blasting the houses along its curbs. On September 19, the Burn Bastion was taken, and on the following day the Lahore Gate finally fell to the British. As the weary days of fighting continued, news of victories was welcome. News of Nicholson's ebbing life was not. When the great soldier died, he was widely mourned.
The last remaining redoubt of the sepoys was believed to be the king's palace, but when its gates were blown open, it was found to be nearly deserted. At dawn on September 21, a royal salute told all within hearing distance that Delhi had been taken by the Army of Retribution. The seat of the once-great Mogul Empire was forever gone.
Bahadur Shah, the self-proclaimed Mogul emperor, had hidden a few miles north of the city in Emperor Homayun's tomb. This was discovered by the intrepid but headstrong Major William Hodson, leader of hard-riding irregulars known as Hodson's Horse and who now managed intelligence for the British at Delhi. With 50 of his men he set out on September 21 to bring in the errant king.
Bahadur Shah had huddled inside the cloisters of the tomb while thousands of his servants and well-wishers sullenly watched the approaching British horsemen. The king knew that resistance on his part would be pointless, and he accepted Hodson's promise that the major would spare his life if he gave up quietly.
Followed by a vast entourage of Indians, Hodson led his captive back to Delhi. Then, he and 100 of his irregular cavalrymen returned to Homayun's tomb, this time to bring back the king's two sons and grandson. Despite a mob of royal retainers and partisans, many of whom were armed, Hodson was able to flush the young scions of the Mogul dynasty from their hiding place. Hodson, surrounded by a hostile crowd, raised his carbine and summarily executed the three princes. Amazingly, the shocked mob did nothing. The bodies were dumped unceremoniously at the spot where the king's sons were thought to have committed atrocities against the English.
It is reported that the troops of the besieging force have proceeded to loot and pillage the city. A large number of the citizens have been killed in retaliation for the Europeans and Indian 'collaborators' that had been killed by the rebel sepoys. Artillery has been set up at the main mosque in the city, the Jama Masjid, and the neighborhoods within the range of artillery have been bombarded. These include the homes of the Muslim nobility from all over India.