“EUREKA THE ATTACK ON THE STOCKADE AND THE EVENTS LEADING TO IT" by Peter Butters Part 9: The Aftermath The Geelong Advertiser reported, 'The first thing that I saw was a number of diggers enclosed in a sort of a hollow square, many of them were wounded, the blood dripping from them as they walked, some were walking lame, pricked on by the bayonets of the soldiers bringing up the rear. The soldiers were much excited, and the troopers madly so, flourishing their swords, and shouting out - 'We have waked up Joe!' and others replied, "And sent Joe to sleep again!'. The diggers' Standard ( flag ) was carried by in triumph to the Camp, waved about in the air, then pitched from one to another, thrown down and trampled on. The scene was awful - two's and three's carried together, and all felt stupefied. I went with R---- to the barricade, the tents all around were in a blaze, I was about to go inside, when a cry was raised that the troopers were coming again. They did come with carts to take away the bodies. I counted fifteen dead, and one G----, a fine well educated man, and a great favourite. I recognised two others, but the spectacle was so ghastly that I feel a loathing at the remembrance. They all lay in a small space, with their faces upwards, looking like lead, several of them were still heaving, and at every rise of their breasts, the blood spurted out of their wounds, or just bubbled out and trickled away. One man, a stout chested fine fellow, apparently about forty years old, lay with a pike beside him, he had three contusions in the head, three strokes across the brow, a bayonet wound in the throat under the ear, and other wounds in the body - I counted fifteen wounds in that single carcass. Some were bringing handkerchiefs, others bed furniture, and matting to cover up the faces of the dead. O God ! sir, it was a sight for a Sabbath morn that, I humbly implore Heaven, may never be seen again. Poor women crying for absent husbands, and children frightened into quietness. I, sir, write disinterestedly, and I hope my feelings arose from a true principle, but when I looked at that scene, my soul revolted at such means being so cruelly used by a Government to sustain the law. A little terrier sat on the breast of the man I spoke of, and kept up a continuous howl, it was removed, but always returned to the same spot, and when his master's body was huddled with the other corpses, into the cart, the little dog jumped in after him, and lying again on his dead master's breast, began howling again. ----- was dead there also, and -----, who escaped, had said, that when he offered his sword, he was shot in the side by a trooper, as he was lying on the ground wounded. He expired almost immediately. Another was lying dead just inside the barricade, where he seemed to have crawled.... A poor woman and her children were standing outside a tent, she said that the troopers had surrounded the tent, and pierced it with their swords. She, her husband, and her children, were ordered out by the troopers, and were inspected in their nightclothes outside, whilst the troopers searched the tent. Mr Hasleham was roused from his sleep by a volley of bullets fired through his tent, he rushed out, and was shot down by a trooper, and handcuffed. He lay there bleeding from a wound in his breast, until his friends sent for a blacksmith, who forced of the handcuffs with a hammer and cold chisel. When I last heard of Mr. Hasleham, a surgeon was attending him, and probing for the ball. One man was seen yesterday trailing along the road. He said he could not last long, and that his brother was shot alongside of him. All whom I spoke to were of the opinion that it was a cowardly massacre. There were only about 170 diggers, and they were all opposed to nearly 600 military..... R.M. Serjeant recorded that he saw the troops returning to Camp with their prisoners several of whom were wounded, and dragged along in the greatest agony. Entering the Stockade, he 'saw nearly a score of dead diggers, and every man of them, though previously shot or sabred, was bayoneted through the neck as he lay on the ground. No blood oozed from these wounds, for the men were dead when they were inflicted.' Samuel Lazarus was even more descriptive. 'Stretched on the ground lay eighteen or twenty lifeless bodies. Some were shot in the face, others riddled throughout. One had the whole side of his body roasted by the flames from his burning tent, while another, his brains protruding through his opened head, lay in his last agony.' Conditions at the camp for the prisoners were appalling and it was recounted, 'Powell was very badly wounded, and his wounds got no attention from the authorities. Hundreds of maggots were crawling in and out of the festering sores, which were disgusting to behold; but the puppets of the Camp had no pity. Death put an end to his misery and suffering...' V.R. NOTICE Government Camp Ballarat, Dec. 3rd, 1854. Her Majesty's forces were this morning fired upon by a large body of evil-disposed persons of various nations, who had entrenched themselves in a stockade on the Eureka, and some officers and men killed. Several of the rioters have paid the penalty of their crime, and a large number are in custody. All well disposed persons are earnestly requested to return to their ordinary occupations, and to abstain from assembling in large groups, and every protection will be afforded to them by the authorities Robert Rede, Resident Commissioner. Many of the leaders in the Stockade fled and rumours abounded as to their fate. Kennedy and Black, in disguise, made for Geelong but apparently got lost, Kennedy ending up as a bullock driver whilst Black eventually made Melbourne. Esmond, whose original discovery of gold started the rush, was among those in the stockade, and he too made for Geelong. American McGill was dressed as a girl and escaped on the coach to Melbourne, where he sheltered. A poster was circulated by the French Consul, Count de Chabrillan to remind Frenchmen that they were guests in the Colony and were bound to respect the authority of the country giving them hospitality. Unlike that of the military, the actual location of the burials of diggers killed at the Eureka Stockade was not precisely recorded in documentation that has survived. A Government Officer from the camp recorded, 'The dead were buried the same day in the cemetery. The bodies of the insurgents, placed in rough coffins made hurriedly, were laid in a separate grave, the burial service being performed by the clergyman to whose congregation they belonged.' We are informed on the 4th December 'The funerals of several of those who fell at the Stockade and were removed by their friends, took place today. They were attended by several hundred men, who marched three abreast up the Main road and past the Camp, during which the garrison was under arms.' Charles Rich, a digger recounted, 'While sitting at dinner one lovely Sunday afternoon I received notice from Mr Watkins, the Government contractor, to join another young Welshman in sinking an excavation to make a grave for the diggers slain at the Stockade in the morning. We commenced digging the grave and had been at it for some three or four hours. As it was a very large one we worked very hard, but before we had nearly finished the mournful cavalcade arrived. In consequence of the coffins being placed in two tiers, one above the other, they reached to within a foot of the surface, four at bottom and three on top, but we managed to cover them up by well banking the earth above them. Whether they were afterwards displaced I never heard. The coffins were very rudely made of half inch weatherboards, the covers roughly nailed on, so that the bodies were plainly discernible through the joints in the lids, and the limbs appeared contracted and quite discoloured by smoke and fire, for the tents were burnt by the military who, when they captured the Stockade, fired the encampments with hand grenades. Whilst interring these unfortunates another procession entered the cemetery conveying the body of a digger, a Welshman named Rowlands, who had been shot by a trooper whilst entering his tent after returning from work. The trooper called on him to stand, and as he paid no attention shot him dead in his tracks. The body was buried at no great distance from those of the insurgents.' The 'Geelong Advertiser' when describing the horror of the aftermath noted, 'A little terrier sat on the breast of the man I spoke of, and kept up a continuous howl, it was removed, but always returned to the same spot, and when his master's body was huddled with the other corpse's into the cart, the little dog jumped in after him, and lying again on his dead master's breast, began howling again.' The little dog must have stayed near his master's body all night because on the following day it followed his body to the grave. Bert Strange in 'Gold Graft and Grievances' states that the diggers were buried not far from the site of the stockade. 'The vanquished diggers buried their dead that day at a spot known for many years afterwards as Graveyard Hill. The site is now occupied by the Bacon Factory on the south west corner of Joseph and Eureka Streets. John Molony in his 'Eureka' states, 'The diggers were initially put to rest near the spot where Scobie fell, while the soldiers were interred at the cemetery near Yuille's Swamp off the Creswick Road.' The 'Argus' correspondent gave an indication of the scene as he found it on his visit two days after the attack. 'I visited the site of Bentley's hotel, and that of the diggers' camp today. The camp has little about it, as it now appears, to indicate its having been the scene of so lamentable a tragedy as that of last Sabbath morning. A few piles of slabs, and the blackened ruins of a few tents, are nearly all the visible traces of the most melancholy event in the history of Victoria. The position of the fortification seems to have nothing to recommend its choice for such purpose. It is on the Eureka, and so near the residence of many of the more determined insurrectionists. It is also remote from the Camp, and not exposed to observation from it, but it has no feature to recommend it for successful defence.' Regarding early cemeteries Withers in his History of Ballarat, first edition, of 1870 states, 'Where the Eureka Lead crossed what is now Eureka Street, there was a bush graveyard, where some of the first diggers were buried. The miners disturbed the bones of the dead when following the lead there.' About twenty years later he elaborated 'that the diggers in following the Eureka lead into Pennyweight Flat had disturbed the bones of the bodies buried on the slope leading down, from about the junction of Eureka and Queen Streets, to the flat. The spot was known as the graveyard, for several of the early diggers had been buried there, and four at least of the graves were, up to the time of tracing of the Eureka Lead to the place and for a little time afterwards, enclosed with fairly substantial fences. Some of the stockade injured lingered on. Withers in his History of Ballarat says that the Melbourne Herald of 12 May 1856 reported. 'Amongst the deaths of recent occurrence at the Benevolent Asylum is that of Frederick Coxhead, native of London, lawyer's clerk, and 24 years of age. He sided with the insurgents at the memorable battle of the Eureka Stockade at Ballarat, and received a gunshot wound. Compression of the brain ensued, and an abscess then set in which terminated fatally on Sunday.' A number of the Eureka diggers killed at the Stockade were later re-interred. The newspaper of December 2, 1857 stated, 'THE EUREKA VICTIMS - On Tuesday morning, about 7 o'clock, the bodies of Captain Ross, James Brown, Thonen, the lemonade seller, and Tom the blacksmith, who fell at the Eureka Stockade, and had been buried apart from the others, were removed from the grave and placed in that containing the bodies of the others who lost their lives on the memorable 3rd of December. The removal took place in the presence of Mr Superintendent Foster, Mr Salmon, trustees of the cemetery, and Mr Lessman. The coffins were in excellent preservation. We understand that no procession will take place on Thursday next, the anniversary of the Eureka affair, but the grave of the fallen will be decorated with chaplets and flowers.' Frank Hasleham, a newspaper correspondent, was a victim of the 'butchery' which occurred after the attack on the stockade. He was a wounded spectator who was shot through the breast by police, being later compensated for his injury. He was fired at and wounded at a time when the affray was over and when the forces with their prisoners were returning to the Camp. He was in a place where the scene of action was invisible and no other bloodshed had there taken place. 'Shortly after daybreak in the morning my three mates and myself were aroused from sleep by the fire of musketry , a great proportion of the balls whistling over our tents. The tent is pitched on a rising ground about 500 yards south of the stockade, the tent and stockade each, situated on an eminence, are separated by a large gully running east and west, and comprising in its breadth nearly the whole of the distance above specified. Considerably alarmed at the continuance of the firing, we at last got up and went outside, thinking to find a place of shelter of comparative security. After I had gone outside the firing gradually fell off, the stockade was unoccupied, the insurgent's flag was struck, and whatever fighting was then going on was confined to the further slope of the hill on which the stockade was situated. As some desultory firing was still going on, I advanced about fifty yards down the gully, in order to insure safety by getting upon lower ground, by this time, with the exception of an occasional cheer from the military or police, everything was perfectly quiet, and from where I stood neither soldier nor trooper was to be seen. A few minutes after a small detachment of mounted police made its appearance on the hill, and drew up in a line on either side of the stockade, the officer in command appeared to be haranguing them. I was standing about three hundred yards from them, several other people being near at hand. I saw three troopers leave the ranks and advance towards me, when one of them who rode considerably a-head of the other two arrived within hailing distance, he hailed me as a friend. Having no reason to think otherwise of him, I walked forward to meet him. After he had lured me within a safe distance, namely about four paces, he levelled his holster pistol at my breast and shot me. Previous to this, and while advancing towards each other, he asked me if I wished to join his force, I told him I was unarmed, and in a weak state of health, which must have been plain to him at the time, but added that I hoped this madness on the part of the diggers would soon be over. Upon that he fired. I told him who and what I was; that he had made a grievous mistake; that he had killed me, but I forgave him.' He then continued describing how he was threatened by sword and pistol, to be cut down every time he halted or staggered from exhaustion. His wound bled profusely as he was forced to run. In Ballarat - The Formative Years Bert Strange says ... the gully referred to would be Warrenheip Gully which runs east and west to the south of Eureka Street and the hill would be the highest point or eastern end of Pennyweight Hill, and the distance tallies reasonably with Hasleham's statement. In addition this is the place from which his grandfather said he observed the flames from burning tents in and around the Stockade and saw soldiers and police chasing and arresting people in the vicinity. The view would have been unimpeded because very little vegetation remained. Hasleham obviously had good healing powers as on 24 January 1855, only about six weeks after being shot the newspaper reported, 'Mr Hasleham, the reporter of the 'Herald', who was wounded, when unarmed, and in the exercise of his duties, is to play lago in Othello, at a representation given by the Amateur Dramatic Club : the proceeds for his own benefit.' The report concluded, 'It is at all events pleasing to find that 'one' of the innocent sufferers in the late affair is likely to live to tell the tale hereafter'. Henry Powell who was another slaughtered innocent who died as result of his wounds, walked out of his tent and was accosted by about twenty mounted police. Clerk of the Peace, Arthur Purcell Akehurst struck him with a sword to the head, Powell was then fired at and ridden over several times. He died on the 9 December shortly after making a dying deposition about these events, before Gordon Evans, an Inspector of Police . He said that he was very unwell but thought he would recover - or at least he hoped so. On Saturday he came over to Ballaarat for the purpose of visiting Mr. Cox and remaining until Sunday evening, and when he arrived at Ballaarat he saw people going about in armed bodies. He came home and changed his trousers and went down and looked into the ring (Stockade), and then went to bed in the tent which was the property of Mr Cox. About 5 o'clock the next morning, Sunday, he heard the report of a pistol, got up and went towards the place where the firing was. He had gone about forty yards when the police came up to him, the Clerk of the Peace, a young man about twenty years of age was with them. He said, 'In the Queen's name you are my prisoner'. Powell replied 'very good', but he was struck by a blow and then the troopers rode over him. He described that the blow was struck with something like a sheath knife about three feet and a half long. Powell died later that night and the inquest was held in the tent where the body lay. Dr William Wills, the father of the noted explorer, who had attended Powell was an important witness at the inquest. "I am a properly qualified medical practitioner. I was called to see the deceased last Sunday morning December the 3rd. I found him on the stretcher on which the coffin now is. I examined the body. The first wound I saw was that on the abdomen. The ball had entered just near the floating ribs on the right side, it made its exit above and beyond the navel on the left side. The second wound was through the right shoulder from before backwards. A third ball had gone thru the left arm just above the wrist. He had received a severe sabre cut on the left parietal bone indenting the bone. Two other wounds were on his head, one on the frontal bone another on the upper part of the occipital bone, both penetrating to the bone. There was a wound on the left elbow joint penetrating to the humerous and a wound in the finger on the same hand laying open the tendon of the third finger..... I visited him twice a day during the week and dressed his wounds and attended him generally administering all proper medicines. ... in answer to questions - I believe one of the wounds on the head might have caused death - I believe the wound on the abdomen was caused by a musket ball - either one of the four wounds might have caused death - in my opinion death was caused by the wounds generally... VERDICT OF THE JURY - : The death of deceased, Henry Powell, gold digger, was caused by sabre cuts and gun shot wounds, wilfully and feloniously, and of their malice aforethought inflicted and fired by ARTHUR PURCELL AKEHURST, Clerk of the Peace, Ballarat Bench, and other persons unknown. : The jury return a verdict of Wilful Murder against A.P. Akehurst and other persons unknown. : The jury express their condemnation of the conduct of Captain Evans, in not swearing deceased at the time of taking his statement after having been cautioned by Dr Wills of his immediate danger. The jury view with extreme horror the brutal conduct of the mounted police in firing at and cutting down unarmed and innocent persons of both sexes, at a distance from the scene of disturbance, on December 3rd, 1854. WILLIAMS , Coroner. There were many accounts of Lalor's escape, but the account of a personal friend can be best relied upon. Stephen Cummings, a chartist, was a participant and close friend of Lalor. He brought Lalor to Father Smyth's House, and later arranged for him to be taken to Geelong by the Carroll's. Cummings lived in a house on a knoll, at the head of Clayton's Gully, where he had lived prior to the attack and then till old age. He stated - "After the soldiers and police retired, Lalor was put on Father Smyth's horse, and he rode into the ranges and got shelter in a tent near Warrenheip. In the afternoon of the day of the fight, the woman of the tent told him she had to go to Ballarat and left him alone. He feared that the woman was going to inform the police of his whereabouts, at once made up his mind to leave. I was on the look out (his house commanded the stockade site), towards sundown on the Sunday I saw a strange figure coming across from the direction of the ranges east of the (later) Buninyong rail line, wearing a belltopper - a most unusual thing in those days, and a long tail coat. It was Lalor disguised in Father Smyth's clothes. We housed him, gave him refreshments and dressed his arm. I suggested that his arm would have to come off and that Father Smyth's house would be safer. I went to see Father Smyth, he agreed with me. When it was dark I set out with Lalor, revolver in hand for Father Smyth's house. We did not meet a soul and when we got to the priest's place Lalor was put to bed in a little out-house. The next thing was to get a doctor, and I went for Doctor Doyle of Golden Point, who said it was a case of amputation. "All right" said Lalor, "let's know the worst". He was a very brave man, with all his defects. Dr Gibson and Dr Stewart and I were there while Doyle performed the operation. About that time Bishop Goold came up and he was opposed to his clergy taking part in the movement, and Lalor was spirited away from Father Smyth 's place. A few days after that a messenger came to me from Lalor. I went and found him in a bed in a small tent on Black Hill Flat, where there was only just room for a man to lie down. We got him shifted to a nice large tent belonging to Michael Hayes at the foot of Black Hill. He stayed there until he got a carrier named Carroll and little Tommy Marks to take him to Geelong." Mrs. Anastasia Hayes, the wife of Timothy, was present at the amputation of Peter Lalor's arm, in Fr. Smyth 's house. Withers continued..."Mrs Timothy Hayes was bright and quick in speech, as became the woman who told the police, when they arrested her husband, that they would not have had their way so easily if she was a man. She assisted at the amputation, "two tables" she said "were set side by side, and Lalor was laid upon them. Father Smyth was going to hold the basin, but he was so nervous that he said to me, Can you hold it? I said, Yes I can. Dr Doyle seemed timid also, and Lalor cried out, Courage, courage lop it off - and so it was done. After that Lalor was put in Father Smyth's bed, and three sacks were filled with the blankets, sheets, and things that were soaked with the blood from the arm and the wine given him to drink. The arm was put in with the clothes, and I saw McGrath and Phelan bury it all down a deep hole. I could show you the spot now." which was believed to have been an alluvial shaft near the corner of Mair & Princess Streets. The priest's servant afterwards retrieved the arm and it was buried in a place where it was not likely to be disturbed.