As though vying with each other to earn their General's approbation, the regiments sprang forward in turn and gradually drove the enemy back.

From The Great Mutiny by Christopher Hibbert. Page 207.

General Havelock found Nana Sahib's men, five thousand strong, drawn up in a crescent outside Cawnpore, evidently expecting a frontal attack. He decided, however, that he 'would not oblige them', but, 'like old Frederick at Leuthen', attack them on their left flank. This involved a long march through mango groves and ploughed fields in the intense heat of the afternoon. It was 'one of the most severe marches ever made in India', a gunner officer thought. 'The sun struck down with fearful force. At every step a man reeled out of the ranks and threw himself fainting by the side of the road - the calls for water incessant all along the line.'

The men had not gone far when they came under heavy fire, the crashes of the shot through the trees being accompanied in the distance by a sepoy band playing what sounded like - and was no doubt intended to be - Auld Lang Syne. At the turning point, the infantry wheeled into line, then lay down while Maude's cannon endeavoured to silence the enemy fire. But his guns were too light; the rebels' pieces too well sheltered; and the Highlanders were ordered to charge. It was the first of several charges bravely carried out that day, as Havelock, who to Major North seemed as 'gifted with ubiquity as scornful of danger', rode about the field, giving orders, shouting encouragement: 'Well done, 78th! Another charge like that wins the day! . . . Well done, gentlemen volunteers, I am proud to command you! . . . Come, who'll take this village, the Highlanders or the 64th? . . . The longer you look at it, men, the less you will like it. Rise up. The brigade will advance!'

As though vying with each other to earn their General's approbation, the regiments sprang forward in turn and gradually drove the enemy back. For a time the rebels rallied under the urgent commands of their leaders. But a final, desperate charge, in which Havelock's son and aide-de-camp took a prominent part, broke the rebels' line. Nana Sahib galloped away towards Bithur, while thousands of people from Cawnpore fled from the city into the surrounding countryside to avoid the vengeance of the British soldiers.