August 24th.—This morning, at about 2 o'clock, the enemy opened a very heavy fire, both of round shot and musketry; commencing and concluding the same apparently on the signal of a fireball thrown up on each occasion. The Judicial Garrison house, under command of Captain Germon, being in a most dangerous state from the effects of round shot, all the women and wounded men, also children, were removed from that post, as well as from all the other outposts in that quarter, into the Begum Kotee in the neighbourhood. A sergeant of the 84th was dangerously wounded coming up from Mrs. Sago'shouse, by a sharp-shooter. Lieutenant Bonham, of the artillery, was busily employed perfecting his arrangements for using an 8-inch mortar as a howitzer. The experiment succeeded very well yesterday evening.
The verandah of the Residency on the west side came entirely down this morning. The commissariat stores in the godown underneath were removed in the evening, as some of the arches of the lower story were cracked, and a heavy cannonade would have brought the whole place down. Arrangements were made this day for still further reducing the rations of Europeans. A kitmutghar came in from the city last night: his account was so suspicious, that he was placed under an European guard, as he might have tampered with the natives. To-day we threw two shells a long way into the city, in the direction of the palace. The enemy tolerably quiet; towards the middle of the day confining themselves to sharp-shooting at every one they saw move about in our position. Mr. MacRae of the Civil Engineer Department was very badly hit in the shoulder this afternoon, while assisting in layinga mortar in the Post-office; and a sergeant and a private were badly wounded early in the day, while going to their post. The enemy possessed many excellent rifle shots, and fired out of their loopholes from the houses around with great certainty; occasioning us a daily loss of from three to five men. Two sepoys of the 13th were also slightly wounded by random shots before daybreak this morning. Several shells came in this evening; and about 12P.M.the enemy opened a tremendous fire on all sides, of round shot, grape, and musketry, which lasted for an hour: the fire was very heavy, but they made no effort to storm, though their bugles sounded the advance repeatedly.