Such was eminently the case at Cawnpore, yet General Wheeler seems to
have known better. While the European officers continued to sleep every
night in the sepoy lines, the veteran made his preparations for meeting
the coming storm.
European combatants were very few at Cawnpore, but European
_impedimenta_ were very heavy. Besides the wives and families of the
regimental officers of the sepoy regiments, there was a large European
mercantile community. Moreover, while the Thirty-second Foot was
quartered at Lucknow, the wives, families, and invalids of the regiment
were living at Cawnpore. It was thus necessary to secure a place of
refuge for this miscellaneous multitude of Europeans in the event of a
rising of the sepoys. Accordingly General Wheeler pitched upon some old
barracks which had once belonged to a European regiment; and he ordered
earthworks to be thrown up, and supplies of all kinds to be stored, in
order to stand a siege. Unfortunately there was fatal neglect somewhere;
for when the crisis came the defences were found to be worthless, while
the supplies were insufficient for the besieged.
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