The little volume entitled “ Two Months in Arrah in 1857,” (written by J. J. Halls, who was one of the gallant defenders), was first brought to my notice as Editor of St. George's Gazette, by
Mr. W. Kett, late Fifth Fusiliers, and now a Yeoman Warder of the Tower of London. Thinking that it might interest the readers of the Gazette , a few of whom bore a hand in the stirring events therein narrated, I reprinted it in that paper.
The account was however incomplete as it stood, for although the author has dealt exhaustively with the doings of the Arrah Garrison, his situation precluded him from being able to give us much information with regard to the raising of the siege.
I therefore wrote to Mr. Charles Kelly of Lunestown, Mullingar, and asked him if he could supply me with the details of the Relief of Arrah District.