SEPOY REVOLT: BENGAL, DELHI, PUNJAB.
1857.
§1. European soldiers and Asiatic sepoys. §2. Three British armies
in India: Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. §3. Sepoy army of Bengal:
Brahmans and Rajputs. §4. Enfield cartridges: general horror of
pork: Hindu worship of the cow. §5. Agitation of the sepoys at
Barrackpore. §6. First mutiny against the cartridges: Berhampore.
§7. Second mutiny: Barrackpore. §8. Oudh: mutiny at Lucknow:
suppressed. §9. Mutiny and massacre at Meerut. §10. Mohammedan
revolt and massacre at Delhi: general excitement. §11. British
advance from the Punjab to Delhi. §12. Siege of Delhi by Europeans,
Sikhs, and Ghorkas. §13. Punjab and John Lawrence: antagonism
between Sikhs and Mohammedans. §14. Sepoy plots at Lahore and Mian
Mir: quashed. §15. Peshawar and frontier mountain tribes. §16.
Execution of sepoy mutineers at Peshawar. §17. Brigadier John
Nicholson: worshipped by a Sikh brotherhood. §18. Proposed
withdrawal from Peshawar. §19. Mutiny at Sealkote: wholesale
executions. §20. Siege and storm of Delhi, September 1857: peace in
the North-West.
[Sidenote: Military rule in India.]
It is a common saying that "India is held by the sword;" but the phrase
is misleading, and in one direction it is absolutely untrue. The British
army is not maintained to rivet a foreign yoke on the subject
populations. Its main duty has been to keep the peace between rival
princes, to put down fighting between antagonistic religions, and to
protect India against foreign aggression.
[Sidenote: Paucity of European troops.]
§1. The small number of European troops in 1857 proves that India was
free. In the Bengal provinces, which cover a larger area than Great
Britain and Ireland, and a denser population, there were scarcely any
European troops. A single regiment sufficed to garrison Calcutta; and of
this regiment one wing was quartered in Fort William within the city,
whilst the other wing was quartered in Dumdum arsenal, seven miles off.
With this exception, there were no European troops within 400 miles of
Calcutta. One European regiment was quartered at Dinapore, to the
westward of Patna, and another at Rangoon, in the newly-acquired
province of Pegu. There was also a European regiment at Lucknow in Oudh,
and two European regiments at Meerut in the North-West Provinces, about
forty miles from Delhi, and a thousand miles from Calcutta. But the bulk
of the European regiments in India were quartered in the Punjab, the
frontier province on the north-west. This frontier is the only
vulnerable side of India. It faces Afghanistan; but it also faces a
possible combination of European and Asiatic powers, which may some day
menace the British empire in India.
[Sidenote: Sepoys or Asiatics.]
The army of the East India Company was mainly composed of native
soldiers, known as sepoys. The term "native," however, is equivocal, and
sepoys are best called Asiatics, to distinguish them from British
soldiers, who are known in India as Europeans. They were formed into
regiments corresponding to European battalions, and were drilled and
commanded by European officers corresponding to regimental officers in
Her Majesty's army. Each regiment had also an Asiatic staff of
sepoy officers, known as naiks, havildars, jemadars, and
subahdars--corresponding to corporals, sergeants, lieutenants, and
captains. Such regiments were known as "regulars."
[Sidenote: Army strength.]
In 1857 the regular army of the East India Company comprised in round
numbers about 200,000 Asiatics, commanded by 4,000 European officers,
and about 45,000 British-born soldiers. But the European regiments were
not all taken from Her Majesty's service. The East India Company had
enlisted nine European regiments for exclusive service in India, who
were known as Fusiliers and Locals. Moreover, in addition to the regular
sepoys, there were battalions known as irregulars, because they had
fewer regimental European officers. They were raised specially for
service in particular provinces, and also for service in the contingent
and subsidiary forces maintained by feudatory states under existing
treaties.
[Sidenote: Tried fidelity.]
The sepoy army had been the pride and glory of the East India Company
for more than a hundred years. It won its first laurels in the old wars
against the French in Southern India; and from the battle of Plassy in
1757, to the dawn of 1857, it had shared the triumph of the British army
in building up the Anglo-Indian empire. For perfection of discipline,
and fidelity to their European officers, the sepoys might for many years
have been favourably compared with the soldiers of any continental army.
Hindus and Mohammedans fought side by side with Europeans, and one and
all were bound together by that brotherhood in arms, which grows up
between soldiers of all races and climes who have been under fire
together in the same campaign.
[Sidenote: No religious distinctions.]
On the parade-ground and on the battle-field all differences of race,
caste, and religion were for the moment forgotten. Together, sepoys and
soldiers fought, not only against the French, but against Nawabs and
Sultans who were Mohammedans, and against Mahrattas and Rajas who were
Hindus. Together, they had crossed the Indus and the Sutlej to fight
against Afghans and Sikhs; climbed the shelves and precipices of the
Himalayas to punish the aggressions of the Ghorkas of Nipal; and
ascended the waters of the Irrawaddy to chastise the arrogance of
Burmese kings. When the sepoys were called out by the British magistrate
to repress riots between Hindus and Mohammedans, they put their religion
into their pockets and fired with the utmost impartiality on both
parties, although in their hearts they must have sympathised with one
side or the other. But the pride of the sepoy, whether Hindu or
Mohammedan, was to be "faithful to his salt"--in other words, to be
loyal to the master from whom he drew his pay.
[Sidenote: Sepoy ways.]
But sepoys have ways of their own which Europeans cannot always
understand, unless they have served with them shoulder to shoulder, and
listened patiently and considerately to the outpourings of their
grievances. A sepoy is proud of his corps, jealous for its reputation,
and respectful to his officers. Hindus of the higher castes, such as
Brahmans and Rajputs, and Mohammedans of noble and ancient families, are
alike amenable to British discipline. But sepoys can be stung to
insubordination by insult or injustice, like soldiers of other races.
Sepoys have been known to sacrifice caste prejudices to help European
officers in time of need, but they resented needless interference or
looks of scorn with the sullen pride of Orientals. At Vellore, in 1806,
the Madras sepoys were driven to mutiny by the contemptuous orders of
the military authorities as regards caste marks and turbans, and above
all by the jeers of the Mysore princes, who taunted them with becoming
Christians. Yet during the first Cabul war and other distant campaigns,
sepoys often forgot their caste in cases of emergency, and cheerfully
obeyed orders which they would have resented in their own country, or in
the presence of inconvenient witnesses.
[Sidenote: Mutiny at loss of batta.]
Injustice again, real or imagined, is as intolerable to sepoys as it is
to children. More than once a regiment has been deprived of batta, or
field allowances, under circumstances which kindled a burning sense of
wrong. This batta is given during service in foreign territory, but is
withdrawn after the return of the sepoys to British territory. Thus,
sepoys who had borne the brunt of the wars in Sind and the Punjab, were
suddenly deprived of batta when those countries became British
provinces, and naturally rebelled against what must have appeared to
them a crying injustice. The sepoy complained that he had helped to
conquer Sind for the East India Company, and was then punished by the
loss of batta. The paymaster pointed to the regulations, but the result
was disaffection amounting to mutiny.
[Sidenote: Disbandment.]
Under such circumstances there was no alternative but disbandment. There
can be no pardon for mutineers, yet capital punishment, or even a long
term of imprisonment, would be needlessly severe in dealing with
ignorant sepoys. As it was, their doom was terrible in the eyes of their
fellows. In a moment they were deprived of all hope of pension, which
secured to every sepoy, a life provision in his native village when age
or infirmity compelled him to retire from the army.
[Sidenote: Three armies: Bengal, or Northern India.]
§2. The Company's regular forces in India were formed into three
distinct armies, namely, those of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, and each
army had its own commander-in-chief. The armies of Madras and Bombay
were mostly recruited in their respective presidencies; but the people
of Bengal are not a fighting race, and the Bengal army was mostly
recruited from the warlike populations of Oudh and the North-West
Provinces. Again the Bengal army was not kept within the limits of the
Bengal presidency, but was distributed over the whole of Northern India
as far as the north-west frontier. It was consequently larger than the
two other armies put together. It garrisoned Bengal, the North-West
Provinces, and the newly-acquired provinces of Oudh and the Punjab;
whilst it overlooked, more or less, the Asiatic states to the south and
west of the Jumna, including the principalities and chiefships of
Rajputana, the territories of Sindia and Holkar, and the smaller domains
of a host of minor feudatories.
[Sidenote: Bombay in the Deccan; Madras in the South.]
The Bombay army garrisoned the Western Deccan and Sind, and the Madras
army garrisoned Southern India and Pegu; but neither of these armies
played any prominent part in the great sepoy revolt of 1857-58. Some
disaffection was shown in the Bombay army which was nearest to the
Bengal sepoys, and caught something of the contagion. The Madras army
was for the most part still further south; and only one regiment caught
the infection, and was promptly disbanded.
[Sidenote: Hindus in Bengal army.]
§3. The sepoy army of Bengal was mainly composed of Hindus. Taking the
average strength of every regiment at 1,000 sepoys, there would be 800
Hindus and 200 Mohammedans; and the antagonism between the two religions
was supposed to secure an additional safeguard against mutiny or
disaffection.
[Sidenote: High castes: Brahmans and Rajputs.]
High caste was the main characteristic of the Hindu sepoys in the Bengal
army. Of the 800 Hindus in every regiment, about 400 were Brahmans, the
sacred caste of India, who claim to be gods, and are supposed to be
endowed with supernatural powers. Next to the Brahmans were about 200
Rajputs, the royal caste of India, who claim to be "sons of Rajas," and
are soldiers by birth as well as calling. The remaining 200 Hindus were
men of low caste, who were regarded as inferior beings. The Brahmans
were powerful over all, and were worshipped by the Rajputs as well as by
the low castes.
[Sidenote: Discipline and caste.]
Pride of caste was thus the moving spirit of the Bengal army. This,
however, was not perceptible on the parade ground or field of battle,
except in the lofty mien, haughty bearing, and splendid physique of the
men. The Bengal sepoys were taller on the average than any European
armies, excepting perhaps the Russian guard.[27] On duty the Brahman and
Rajput obeyed the word of command when given by a low caste sepoy
officer. Off duty, the low caste sepoy officer prostrated himself in
token of worship before the Brahman soldier under his command.
[Sidenote: Growing insubordination of the Bengal sepoys.]
But pride of caste had its disadvantages, and for years the Bengal
sepoys had displayed a laxity of discipline, and a spirit of
insubordination towards their European officers, which had been unknown
in the older days. They had been pampered and humoured to an extent
which diminished their efficiency, and many officers of experience
lamented the change. But any report to that effect was naturally
offensive to the higher military authorities; and those who were most
alive to the growing evil found that it was best for their own interests
to keep their opinion to themselves.
[Sidenote: Calcutta, Dumdum, Barrackpore, Berhampore.]
It has been seen that Calcutta was garrisoned by a single regiment of
Europeans, one wing being quartered in Fort William and the other in the
arsenal at Dumdum, about seven miles off. Nine miles north of Dumdum,
and sixteen miles north of Calcutta, is the pleasant station of
Barrackpore, where the Governor-General has a park and country mansion,
and where four sepoy regiments were cantoned with their European
officers, but without European troops. About 100 miles still further
north is the station of Berhampore, hard by the old capital of
Murshedabad; and here a regiment of sepoy infantry was posted, with half
a regiment of sepoy cavalry and a battery of sepoy artillery.
[Sidenote: Sepoy huts and lines.]
A sepoy regiment in the Bengal army was cantoned in ten rows of huts, a
company of 100 sepoys in each row. The arms and ammunition of each
company were kept in a circular magazine in the front of each line. The
European officers, with or without wives and families, lived round about
in one-storied houses with thatched roofs, known as bungalows. The
European officers rarely visited the sepoy lines during the heat of the
day, but two European sergeants were appointed to each regiment to lodge
close to the lines and report all that was going on.
[Sidenote: Enfield rifle: musketry schools at Dumdum, Meerut, and
Sealkote.]
§4. In 1856 the Russian war was over, and the Enfield rifle, which had
been used with such success in the Crimea, was introduced into India.
Accordingly three musketry schools were established in Northern India
for teaching the sepoys of the Bengal army the use of the new rifle. One
school was established at Dumdum for the instruction of the sepoys in
the Bengal presidency; another at Meerut, forty miles from Delhi, for
those in the North-Western Provinces; and the third at Sealkote for
those in the Punjab. Under this arrangement, detachments from the
different regiments were to be sent from time to time to one or other of
these schools until the whole Bengal army was familiar with the use of
the Enfield. It will be seen hereafter that the three most dangerous
mutinies in India grew out of these musketry schools.
[Sidenote: Greased cartridges.]
In those days every sepoy and soldier had been accustomed for
generations to bite off the end of his paper cartridge before loading
his musket. Accordingly a supply of cartridges for the new rifle was
received from England, and forwarded to each of the three schools, and
further supplies of the same pattern were manufactured in the arsenal at
Dumdum by low-caste workmen known as Lascars. Suddenly it leaked out
that the new cartridges were greased with the fat of cows, or with the
fat of pigs. Thus every Hindu sepoy who bit the cartridge would lose his
caste and religion as if he had eaten beef; whilst every Mohammedan
sepoy would be polluted by contact with pork, and not only lose his
religion, but be barred out for ever from the heaven of celestial
houris.
[Sidenote: Discovery at Dumdum.]
A Lascar employed in Dumdum arsenal met a Brahman sepoy going to
Barrackpore, and asked him for a drink of water out of his brass lotah.
This was an unusual request, intended to vex and annoy the Brahman. A
thirsty low-caste Hindu might ask a high-caste man to pour water into
his mouth, but would not offend the Brahman by the bare suggestion of
drinking out of his lotah. The Brahman turned away in disgust at the
idea of low-caste lips polluting his drinking-cup. The Lascar retorted
that the Brahman would soon be as impure as himself, for he would bite
the new cartridges which had been smeared with the fat of cows and pigs,
and would lose caste altogether.
[Sidenote: Horror of Hindus and Mohammedans.]
The Brahman was thunderstruck at this taunt. Europeans who have never
visited India can scarcely realise the horrors that must have seized on
his Brahmanised imagination. Suet and lard are such familiar ingredients
in European cookery, that no one in the British Isles could have been
surprised at their being used for greasing Enfield cartridges. But to
Europeans that have lived in India, the bare fact that cartridges should
have been greased with suet or lard, to be bitten by Hindu or Mohammedan
sepoys, seems a mad freak of fortune which is altogether
incomprehensible. In the fierce antagonism between the two religions,
Hindus have thrown dead pigs into Mohammedan mosques, and Mohammedans
have thrown slaughtered cows into Hindu temples; but the British
government stood on neutral ground. It had always professed to hold an
even balance between the two religionists, and any attempt to destroy
the caste of Hindus, or the religion of Mohammedans, was altogether
foreign to the ideas of Asiatics or Europeans.
[Sidenote: Pigs unclean.]
It is easy to understand why both Hindus and Mohammedans regard swine as
unclean. The Jews have had the same horror of pigs and pork from time
immemorial. To this day, both Hindus and Mohammedans shudder, or affect
to shudder, at the idea of Europeans cleaning their teeth with brushes
made of bristles; and none but those of enlarged experiences, who have
been Europeanised out of their religious prejudices, or smitten with a
passion for European luxuries, would venture to eat a slice of ham.
[Sidenote: Cow worship.]
The cow is not more to Mohammedans than it is to Europeans, but the
Hindus worship it as a deity. Gratitude for the milk and butter which
she gives to the family has swelled into affection and adoration, which
have invested a common-place animal with attributes that are at once
mystic and divine. The cow is the living representative to the Hindu of
all that is beautiful and spiritual in women, and of all that is
mysterious in the sex. The cow is the incarnation of the earth, the
mother of all things, the goddess of good fortune, the living
manifestation of Lakshmi; she who was created by the gods, who descended
from the heaven of Indra and churned the ocean, until the bright goddess
rose out of the waves, like a Hindu Aphrodite, to become the wife of the
supreme spirit, Vishnu. To kill a cow is a sacrilegious crime, like
killing a Brahman, a woman, or a Raja. To taste the flesh of a cow is as
revolting to the Hindu imagination as tasting the flesh of a mother.
[Sidenote: Eating beef a mortal sin.]
Eating or tasting beef through the most distant medium is a mortal sin
in the eyes of Hindus. Under Hindu rule, when the caste system was
enforced by village communities, the vile sinner was driven from his
wife, family, kinsfolk, and village by the ban of Brahmanical
excommunication. In the days of Mohammedan persecutions, thousands of
Hindus were compelled to swallow shreds of beef by tyrants of the stamp
of Tippu Sultan of Mysore, in order to force them to become Mohammedans.
There was no way of escape. They had no alternative but to accept Islam,
marry a Mohammedan wife, and enter a new life and career with a new home
and surroundings.[28]
[Sidenote: Excitement at Barrackpore.]
§5. The ball set rolling from the arsenal at Dumdum soon assumed
monstrous dimensions in the cantonment at Barrackpore. The sepoys
blindly accepted the conclusion that Her Majesty the Queen and Lord
Canning had arranged a secret scheme for converting them all to
Christianity. The greased cartridges, they decided, must have been
manufactured expressly to destroy their religion; to compel them to
become Christians, and to eat beef and drink beer until they became as
strong as Europeans, and were able to conquer Persia, Russia, and China.
Wild fictions, the outcome of Oriental imaginations which would not
have imposed upon a European child, were greedily accepted and talked
over as matters of fact, by the ignorant and credulous sepoys. India, it
was said, was being bound in iron fetters by railway lines and telegraph
wires; and now the poor sepoy was to be cut off from his countrymen and
co-religionists, and to become the helpless vassal of his European
masters, like the genii who are slaves to magicians and sorcerers.
[Sidenote: Fruitless explanations.]
These ridiculous stories soon reached the ears of the European officers.
General Hearsey, who commanded the Calcutta division, assembled the
sepoys on the parade ground at Barrackpore, and reminded them that the
British government had never meddled with their religion or caste, and
had heavily punished any European officer who had attempted to do so.
But his words were thrown away; the brains of the sepoys were too
heated, and their convictions too deeply rooted, to be explained away.
For months they had been discussing the expedition sent from Bombay to
the Persian Gulf to defeat the designs of Russia on Herat; and now there
was to be a war with China! The general might say what he pleased, but
the British government had obviously manufactured the greased cartridges
to destroy the caste of the poor sepoys, to make them eat beef and drink
beer until they were strong enough to conquer the world.
[Sidenote: Secret incendiarism.]
The sepoys at Barrackpore were bewildered and terrified. They were too
afraid to speak, and began to set houses on fire. The suspicious
telegraph office, the magic house at Barrackpore, was burnt down. Other
buildings followed. The agitation was reported to the military
authorities at Calcutta. The composition of the cartridge was explained
to the sepoys. The drill was changed, and the sepoys were no longer
required to bite the cartridge. But nothing would stop the panic. The
sepoys argued with severe logic that if the cartridges had not been
greased with the objectionable fat there would have been no occasion to
change the drill. Eventually the issue of the greased cartridges was
stopped altogether, but the sepoys were as suspicious as ever. As yet,
however, there was no open mutiny at Barrackpore. Discipline was
maintained with the usual strictness, and the word of command was obeyed
without demur. Barrackpore was too near Calcutta, too near the
stronghold of British supremacy which had controlled Bengal for a
hundred years, for the sepoy as yet to dream of open mutiny.
[Sidenote: Contagion at Berhampore.]
§6. Matters were at this pass when a small guard of sepoys was sent on
duty from Barrackpore to Berhampore, a hundred miles to the northward.
Here, it will be remembered, was a regiment of sepoy infantry, half a
regiment of sepoy cavalry, and a battery of sepoy artillery. The new
arrivals from Barrackpore were duly feasted by their comrades of the
sepoy infantry, and the whole story of the greased cartridges was told
with all the latest embellishments of fiction.
[Sidenote: Cartridges refused.]
The next day, the 25th of February 1857, a parade for exercise with
blank ammunition was ordered for the following morning. Blank cartridges
were issued to the infantry of the same pattern that had been used for
generations, but the sepoys refused to accept them. Colonel Mitchell was
in command of the station, and threatened the men with court martial.
Accordingly the sepoys took the cartridges in gloomy silence and
returned to their lines.
[Sidenote: Mutiny.]
In the middle of the night the regiment rose as one man; it was the 19th
Native Infantry of the Bengal army. Every company seized arms and
ammunition from its magazine, and then the whole regiment rushed out of
the lines and shouted defiance. Colonel Mitchell had no European force
to suppress the outbreak; nothing but half a regiment of sepoy cavalry
and the sepoy battery, and it was extremely doubtful whether the men
would fire on the mutineers. However he ordered out the cavalry and
battery, and advanced with his European officers towards the infantry
lines by the light of torches. As he approached there was a halt and a
pause. Tanks of water were in the way, and horses and guns might have
been lost in the darkness.
[Sidenote: Hesitation.]
Neither side wished to take action. The mutineers shrank, as yet, from
firing on their European officers. The sepoys, under Colonel Mitchell,
might have refused to fire. The whole cantonment might have joined in
the mutiny, and the civil stations in the country round about would have
been in sore peril. So there was a parley. The colonel pointed out to
the mutineers the absurdity of their fears and the enormity of their
offence, and conjured them to give up their arms and return to their
lines. The mutineers, on their part, were not prepared to push matters
to extremities. Their excitement had cooled down as they saw their
European officers advancing with the Asiatic cavalry and artillery,
whilst the lurid scenery was lit up by flaming torches. Accordingly it
was arranged that they should return to their lines, and that the force
advancing against them should return to their own quarters.
[Sidenote: Alarm at Calcutta.]
The news of this unexpected outbreak at Berhampore naturally alarmed
Lord Canning. He had much sympathy for the deluded and infatuated
sepoys, but the mutiny could not be ignored. It was absolutely necessary
to disband the regiment, but there was no European force to carry out
the measure. Unless European soldiers were present, the sepoys might
have resisted disbandment, and other sepoy regiments might have joined
the mutineers. No soldiers could be spared from the European regiment
which was quartered at Fort William and Dumdum. Accordingly steamers
were sent to Burma to bring away the European regiment quartered at
Rangoon.
[Sidenote: Sepoy terrors.]
§7. On the 20th March the European regiment from Rangoon entered the
Hughly river. The 19th Native Infantry was marched from Berhampore to
Barrackpore, knowing that it was to be disbanded. At Barrackpore the
sepoys were in a ferment. They felt that they were to be coerced by the
European soldiers. It was not forgotten that some thirty years before, a
sepoy regiment at Barrackpore had refused to go to Burma unless paid
double batta, and had been scattered by a volley of grape, and its
number erased from the army list. Accordingly the sepoys at Barrackpore
had good reason to fear that they might be mowed down by the artillery
unless they accepted the greased cartridges.
[Sidenote: Mungal Pandy.]
Of the four sepoy regiments at Barrackpore, the 34th Native Infantry had
the greatest cause for alarm. It was the 34th that furnished the sepoy
guard which played so much mischief at Berhampore; and the sepoys of
the 34th openly expressed their sympathy with those of the 19th. About
the end of March it was reported to Lieutenant Baugh, the Adjutant of
the 34th, that the sepoys in his regiment were much excited, and that
one of them, named Mungal Pandy, was marching through the lines with a
loaded musket, calling on the sepoys to rise against their officers, and
swearing to fire at the first European that appeared on the scene.
[Sidenote: Assault on Lieut. Baugh.]
Lieutenant Baugh at once put on his uniform, mounted his horse, and rode
off to the parade ground with a pair of loaded pistols in his holsters.
There was the quarter-guard of the regiment, consisting of twenty sepoys
under the command of an Asiatic lieutenant, known as a jemadar. In front
of the quarter-guard was the gun which fired the salutes at sunrise and
noon. Mungal Pandy saw Baugh riding up, and got behind the gun, and
deliberately fired at him. The horse was wounded and the rider was
brought to the ground. Baugh, however, disengaged himself, snatched a
pistol, and advanced on Mungal Pandy before the latter could reload his
musket. Baugh fired and missed. At that moment Mungal Pandy rushed at
him and cut him down with a sword.
[Sidenote: Outbreak and suppression.]
The European serjeant-major of the regiment had followed Baugh at a
distance, and shouted to the quarter-guard to help their officer. But
the sepoys sympathised with Mungal Pandy, and the jemadar forbade them
to stir. The serjeant-major came up breathless, and attempted to seize
Mungal Pandy, but he too was struck down. On this the jemadar advanced
with his twenty sepoys, and began to strike Baugh and the serjeant-major
with the butt ends of their muskets. At this moment a Mohammedan
orderly, who had followed Baugh from his house, ran up and arrested
Mungal Pandy just as he had reloaded his musket. He was followed by
General Hearsey and other officers. The general drew a pistol from his
belt and rode up to the quarter-guard, ordered the men to return to
their post, and threatened to shoot with his own hands the first sepoy
who disobeyed orders. By this bold action the regiment was overawed, and
the storm cloud passed away just as it was about to burst upon the
station.
[Sidenote: Disbandment of 19th Native infantry.]
Two days afterwards there was a solemn parade at Barrackpore. All the
European force available was assembled on the ground, including the
regiment from Rangoon and a wing and two batteries from Dumdum. The 19th
Native Infantry was marched into Barrackpore, repentant and ashamed.
They had petitioned for forgiveness, but there was no pardon for mutiny.
The orders of Lord Canning were read aloud, setting forth their crime,
exposing the absurdity of their fears, and ordering the disbandment. The
men laid down their arms and marched away. The 19th Native Infantry had
ceased to be.
[Sidenote: Hesitation.]
For some weeks the 34th Native Infantry was not disbanded. Mungal Pandy
and the jemadar were tried, convicted, and hanged, but the plague of
mutiny was not stayed. Not a sepoy would point out the men of the
quarter-guard who assaulted the European officers. April, however,
passed away, and nothing was done.
[Sidenote: Disaffection in Oudh.]
§8. Meanwhile there were unpleasant reports from Oudh. Sir Henry
Lawrence, the new chief commissioner, was anxious to redress the wrongs
of the Oudh talukdars, but was vexed by the mutinous spirit of the
sepoys. He had a single regiment of Europeans and two batteries of
European artillery. He had to deal with four sepoy regiments of the
Bengal army--three of infantry, and one of cavalry. Worst of all, he had
to deal with irregular regiments of sepoys, who had been in the service
of the king of Oudh, but had been taken over by the East India Company.
They retained their Asiatic officers, but were drilled and commanded by
a limited number of European officers, and hence were termed irregulars.
These Oudh irregulars sympathised with the regular Bengal sepoys, and
were beginning to manifest a hostile spirit by refusing to accept the
cartridges.
[Sidenote: Sir Henry Lawrence Chief Commissioner.]
In 1857 the province of Oudh was separated from the North-West Provinces
by the river Ganges and the town of Cawnpore. The capital was at
Lucknow, in the centre or heart of Oudh, about fifty-five miles to the
north-east of Cawnpore. Sir Henry Lawrence, the chief commissioner,
lived in a large mansion at Lucknow, which was known as the Residency.
The city of Lucknow extends four miles along the right bank of the river
Goomti, and all the principal buildings, including the royal palaces and
gardens, and the Residency, are situated between the city and the river.
On the opposite bank were the British cantonments; and two bridges over
the river connected the city and Residency on the one bank with the
cantonments on the opposite shore.
[Sidenote: Mutiny at Lucknow.]
On the afternoon of the 3rd of May a startling event occurred in the
cantonments. Four sepoys of an irregular regiment entered the bungalow
of the European adjutant. They were armed to the teeth, and they told
him to prepare for death. They had come to kill him, they said, not
because they disliked him, but because he was a European and a Feringhi.
The adjutant was unarmed. He promptly replied that it was of no use to
kill him, for that the mutiny would be suppressed, they would be hanged,
and another adjutant would be appointed in his stead. The would-be
murderers were struck by his words, and left the house without doing him
any injury.
[Sidenote: Suppression by Lawrence.]
The news reached Sir Henry Lawrence in the evening, and he resolved to
act at once. He crossed the river and called out the European forces and
the four regiments of regular sepoys, and then advanced against the
mutineers, whose lines were seven miles off. The rebels were taken by
surprise; they could do nothing. They were ordered to form in front of
their lines, and they obeyed. They saw cavalry and infantry, soldiers
and sepoys, on either side, and a battery of eight guns in front. They
were ordered to lay down their arms, and they did so. The port-fires of
the artillery were lighted. The mutineers were seized with a panic, and
cried out, "Do not fire!" They then rushed madly away. The ringleaders
and most of their followers were arrested that night by the Bengal
sepoys, and were confined pending trial. It will be seen hereafter that
within a single month, the very sepoy regiments that arrested the
mutinous irregulars rose against their European officers. Meanwhile,
however, the quick action of Sir Henry Lawrence prevented any premature
explosion, and gave him the month to prepare against the possible
contingency.
[Sidenote: Disbandment of 34th Native infantry.]
Next day the outbreak and suppression of the mutiny were telegraphed to
Lord Canning at Calcutta. He was delighted with the promptitude and
prudence of Sir Henry Lawrence. He saw the necessity for taking some
decided action at Barrackpore. The European officers of the 34th Native
Infantry reported that the sepoys were disaffected, and that they
themselves had lost all confidence in the men. Accordingly Lord Canning
determined to disband the regiment. On the 6th of May, at early morning,
the Europeans were once again drawn up on the parade ground. The 34th
Native Infantry was disbanded as the 19th had been five weeks before,
but, unlike the sepoys of the 19th, they showed no signs of contrition.
Still, it was hoped that the disbandment of the 34th would put an end to
the mutiny.
[Sidenote: Sepoys and Europeans at Meerut.]
§9. So far the agitation was the work of the greased cartridges in
Dumdum arsenal. But there was a second school of musketry at Meerut in
the North-West Provinces, a thousand miles from Calcutta and only forty
miles from Delhi. The military cantonment at Meerut covered an area of
five miles, and was the largest in India. At one end were the lines of
three sepoy regiments, two of infantry and one of cavalry, whilst the
bungalows of the European officers were scattered about. At the other
end of the cantonment were the European barracks, in which a European
force was quartered strong enough to have routed four times the number
of sepoys. There was a regiment of Dragoon Guards, known as the
Carabineers; a battalion of the 60th Rifles; two troops of horse
artillery, and a light field battery. The European barracks were thus at
a long distance from the sepoy cantonments, and the interval was
occupied by shops, houses, and gardens.
[Sidenote: Disaffection.]
At Meerut there was to all appearance literally nothing to fear from the
sepoys. The Europeans were all-powerful. Yet at Meerut the agitation
against the greased cartridges was as uncontrollable as elsewhere.
General Hewitt commanded the station, and he and the colonels of the
sepoy regiments expostulated with the men on the absurdity of imagining
that the British government had the slightest desire to interfere with
their caste or religion. But their remonstrances were thrown away.
Buildings were burnt down; the sepoys left off saluting their officers;
and it was whispered that they had resolved never more to touch a single
cartridge.
[Sidenote: The test.]
At last General Hewitt determined to bring the sepoys to the test in the
presence of the European force, and, if necessary, to stop the contagion
by condign punishment. The regiment of sepoy cavalry was selected. A
parade of ninety men of the several squadrons was ordered for the
morning of the 6th of May. The old cartridges were issued, the same
which had been used for generations, but eighty-five men stood out and
refused to handle them. The delinquents were arrested and tried by a
court martial of sepoy officers. They were all convicted of mutiny;
eighty were sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for ten years,
and the remaining five to a like imprisonment for six years. All were
recommended to the mercy of General Hewitt, but the recommendation was
ignored, and it was determined to carry out the sentence at once in
accordance with orders received by telegram from Lord Canning.
[Sidenote: Parade for punishment.]
The mutineers were placed under a strong European guard, consisting of
two companies of the 60th Rifles, and twenty-five men of the
Carabineers. The parade for punishment was held at daybreak on Saturday
the 9th of May. The three regiments of sepoys were drawn up to behold
the disgrace of the delinquents; and the men of the sepoy cavalry also
were brought out to look on the degradation of their comrades. The
sepoys on parade must have felt their hearts burning within them, but
they were powerless to save. The Carabineers and Rifles were on the
ground, and were ordered to load and be ready. The batteries of
artillery were in position, and received the same orders. The slightest
movement of disaffection or revolt would have been followed by a
terrible slaughter. Not a sepoy stirred from the ranks. The prisoners
were brought on the ground, stripped of their uniforms and
accoutrements, and put in irons. They were utterly broken in spirit.
They put up their hands and cried for mercy, and were then led away,
cursing their comrades for not coming to their rescue.
[Sidenote: Folly and mischief.]
Then followed an act of inconceivable folly. The eighty-five sepoys who
had been kept for three days under a strong guard of European soldiers,
were made over to the civil authorities, and lodged in the civil jail,
only two miles from the sepoy cantonments, under the charge of Asiatic
warders. The consequence was that the sepoys brooded over the fate of
their comrades, and secretly determined on rescuing them from the jail,
and murdering their European officers.
[Sidenote: Sunday morning.]
Strange to say, not an idea of danger seems to have crossed the minds of
the British authorities at Meerut. The Europeans went to church on
Sunday morning, lounged through the heat and languor of the day, and
prepared for church in the evening. Meanwhile there had been agitation
and excitement in the sepoy lines, but nothing to excite alarm. The
native women of the bazaar taunted the sepoys of the cavalry with not
having rescued their comrades, and that was all.
[Sidenote: Mutiny and massacre.]
Suddenly, about five o'clock on that Sunday afternoon, the sepoys seized
their arms and ammunition, and rushed out of their lines, with loud
shouts and discharges of musketry. A detachment of sepoy cavalry
galloped off to the jail, and liberated not only their eighty-five
comrades, but all the other prisoners, 1,500 in number. The whole body
then returned to the cantonment and joined the sepoys, who were burning
down bungalows, and murdering every European they met, regardless of sex
and age. Ladies riding in carriages, and officers driving in their
buggies, who had left their homes without a suspicion of evil, were
assaulted and fired at as they drove along. In a word, within a brief
space of time the sepoy cantonments, and the roads round about, were a
scene of riot, bloodshed, and outrage, which are beyond description. At
last, fearing that the European soldiers would soon fall upon them, the
whole mass of sepoys, the cavalry in front and the infantry straggling
behind, rushed off to Delhi. The movement was only natural. Delhi was
the only walled city in the North-West Provinces in which they could
find a refuge. No European troops were quartered within the city or the
suburbs; and a vast magazine of arms and ammunition was seated in the
heart of the city, mostly in charge of Asiatics, who would doubtless
open the gates at the first demand for surrender.
[Sidenote: Inaction.]
For a long time nothing was known at the European barracks of the
mutiny and murder that was going on in the sepoy cantonment. When the
news arrived of the outbreak, there was much delay and confusion. The
Rifles were paraded for church, and time was lost in serving out arms
and cartridges. The Dragoons were put through a roll-call, and then lost
their way amongst the houses and gardens between the European barracks
and the sepoy lines. When the lines were reached, the sepoys had gone
off to Delhi, and darkness was setting in. Had the Dragoons galloped
after the sepoys, the mutiny might have been crushed, and there would
have been no revolt at Delhi.
[Sidenote: Heedlessness.]
But the military authorities at Meerut were unequal to the crisis.
Nothing was thought of but the safety of the station. The Rifles and
Dragoons were kept at Meerut to guard the treasury and barracks, whilst
the sepoy mutineers were pushing on to Delhi to set up the old king--a
Mohammedan prince, in whom the Hindu sepoys had no interest or concern.
Messages, however, were sent to Brigadier Graves, who commanded the
Delhi station, to tell him what had taken place at Meerut, but no
Europeans whatever were sent to help him in the terrible extremity which
awaited him.
[Sidenote: Escape to Delhi.]
§10. All night the sepoy mutineers were running to Delhi; anxious only
to escape from the vengeance of the Europeans. When and where they first
began to cherish wild hopes of restoring the Mohammedan _régime_, and
setting up the last representative of the Great Mogul, as the sovereign
and Padishah of Hindustan, is a mystery to this day. One thing only is
certain; the Hindu sepoys, who composed four-fifths of the mass of
mutineers, could have had no sympathy in the revolt of the Mohammedans,
beyond providing for their own immediate safety against the wrath of the
Europeans.
[Sidenote: Mohammedan rule at Delhi.]
Delhi, however, had been the capital of the Mohammedans of India when
the Caliphs were still reigning at Bagdad; and Mohammedan Sultans and
Padishahs had ruled Hindustan for centuries before the rise of British
power. In 1857 the relics of Mohammedan dominion were still lingering at
Delhi under the shadow of British supremacy. The last representative of
the once famous Great Mogul was still living in the imperial palace at
Delhi, a pensioner of the British government, but bearing the empty
title of "king." The ruins in the neighbourhood of Delhi are monuments
of the triumphs of Islam and the Koran, raised by warriors from Cabul
and Bokhara, who were reverenced as Ghazis--as destroyers of idols and
idolaters. Indeed, the pilgrim who still wanders amongst the palaces,
mosques, mausoleums, towers, domes, archways, terraces, and gardens of
Delhi, and the country round, may yet recall the days when the Hindus
were a conquered people, and the Mohammedans were their oppressors and
persecutors.
[Sidenote: Sepoy garrison at Delhi.]
In May, 1857, British power at Delhi was represented by three regiments
of sepoy infantry, and a sepoy battery of artillery, under the command
of Brigadier Graves. There were no European troops at Delhi, except the
regimental officers and sergeants attached to each corps, and nine
Europeans who had charge of the British magazine in the heart of the
city, with a host of Asiatic subordinates. None of the sepoys had as yet
shown any sign of disaffection, but it will appear hereafter that they
had all caught the contagion of mutiny, but kept their secret until the
moment for action arrived.
[Sidenote: Cantonment on the Ridge.]
The sepoy regiments were cantoned on a rising ground, known as the
Ridge, which was situated about a mile to the north of Delhi, and
overlooked the whole city. The bungalows of the European officers were
scattered about the vicinity. At the furthest end of the Ridge was a
strong position, known as Flagstaff Tower. Further away to the left, the
river Jumna skirted the eastern side of Delhi; and the mutineers from
Meerut were expected to enter the city in this direction by a bridge.
[Sidenote: Mutineers expected.]
Brigadier Graves had but a short warning. The mutineers would certainly
travel all night, and would probably arrive early on the Monday morning.
It was useless to cut away the bridge, as the hot weather was at its
height, and the stream was easily fordable. Everything depended on the
loyalty of the sepoys at Delhi. So long as they remained staunch, the
brigadier might hope to defend the city and cantonment against the
mutineers from Meerut. If, however, the sepoys at Delhi joined the
rebels, there was nothing to be done but to await the European
reinforcements which might be expected from Meerut. Meanwhile, the
brigadier sent circulars to all non-military residents to take refuge in
Flagstaff Tower.
[Sidenote: Preparations for battle.]
The three regiments of sepoy infantry, and the battery of sepoy
artillery, were ordered out. The guns were loaded, and every preparation
made for the coming battle. The brigadier addressed the men in stirring
language. Now was the time, he said, for the sepoys at Delhi to show
their loyalty to the Company. The sepoys responded with loud cheers. One
regiment in particular eagerly demanded to be led against the
mutineers; and the brigadier marched them out to fight the rebels,
leaving the two other regiments on the Ridge.
[Sidenote: Treachery.]
Presently the cavalry from Meerut were seen galloping towards the city.
After them at no great distance was a large mass of rebel infantry, with
their bayonets gleaming in the sun, and their red coats soiled by the
dust of the night march. Neither horse nor foot showed the slightest
hesitation. As the cavalry approached the brigadier ordered his men to
fire. The rattle of musketry followed, but not a single trooper fell
from his horse. The faithful sepoys had fired in the air.
[Sidenote: Firing in the air.]
Then followed a pause. The European officers held on in sheer
desperation; they hoped to be reinforced by British soldiers from
Meerut. The sepoys hesitated for a while, lest they should be cut to
pieces by the Europeans, whom they too expected to arrive. Could the
Europeans have appeared in time, Delhi might have been saved in spite of
the suspicious firing in the air.
[Sidenote: Treachery.]
Useless firing was a treachery that was new to sepoy regiments commanded
by British officers, but it was common enough in Asiatic armies
commanded by their own generals or princes. Mogul history abounds in
stories of Asiatic officers corrupted by gold, and ordering their troops
to fire on an enemy without bullet or ball. Such treachery was scarcely
possible under European officers, and consequently the rebel sepoys
loaded their muskets with cartridges, and then fired into the air.
[Sidenote: Rebels in the palace.]
It was soon evident that the king was making common cause with the
rebels, for the sepoys from Meerut were pouring through the palace to
join their comrades in the city. No Europeans arrived from Meerut, and
the Delhi sepoys began to fraternise with the rebels.
[Sidenote: British refuge.]
Brigadier Graves rallied a few of his men who still remained faithful,
and escaped to Flagstaff Tower. Here he found a large number of European
ladies and children, and all the gentlemen who had been able to reach
the place of refuge. A company of sepoys, and two guns served by sepoy
gunners, still guarded the Tower, and had they remained faithful might
have kept off the enemy. But the force on the Ridge was rapidly melting
away. The hearts of all the sepoys were with the rebels. All were
burning to join the scoundrels in the city in the work of plunder and
destruction; and those who were posted at the Tower only waited for an
opportunity to move off in the same direction.
[Sidenote: Massacre of Europeans.]
Meanwhile the old "king of Delhi" had connived at the slaughter of
Europeans. Mr. Frazer, the commissioner of the Delhi division, and
Captain Douglas, who commanded the palace guards, were cut down within
the royal precincts. Mr. Jennings, the chaplain, and some ladies and
children, numbering altogether about fifty souls, had taken refuge
within the palace walls, in the hope of being protected by the royal
pensioner against the mutinous sepoys. Had the ladies and children been
admitted into the inner apartments, they would have been safe. But there
was a rush of rebel sepoys into the presence of the old king to make
their salams and hail him as their Padishah; and they loudly demanded
the death of every European. The old king could not or would not
interfere, and told the sepoys that he made the prisoners over to them,
to do with them as they pleased. The unhappy victims were shut up in a
dark room with coarse and scanty food. They were offered their lives on
the condition that they became Mohammedans, and entered the service of
the king as menials or slaves. One and all refused, and one and all were
eventually butchered in the palace of Aurangzeb.
[Sidenote: Flagstaff Tower.]
The Europeans in Flagstaff Tower were in sore peril. Ladies were
terrified and anxious for absent husbands, whilst children were
clamouring for milk and food. The men were distracted by the suddenness
of the danger, and the stories of murder and outrage that came from the
city. All eyes were strained in the direction of Meerut. Every one
longed for the arrival of European soldiers to relieve them from the
agony of suspense, and quash the fearful rebellion that was surging up
in Delhi.
[Sidenote: Explosion of the magazine.]
Later on in the afternoon, the great magazine in the heart of Delhi was
seen from the Ridge to explode in a cloud of smoke and flame. It was in
charge of Lieutenant Willoughby of the Bengal artillery, but he had only
eight Europeans with him; the guards and workmen were all Asiatics. Arms
were served out to every one; loaded guns were pointed to the gateways;
and a train of gunpowder was laid to the chief magazine. A vast host of
rebels pressed round the enclosure, and demanded the surrender of the
magazine in the name of the king. Admittance was refused, but the rebels
brought ladders to the walls, or climbed to the roofs of neighbouring
buildings, and poured a hot fire on the inmates of the magazine. Most of
the workmen joined the rebels. Those who still remained staunch threw
away their rifles, and seemed bereft of their senses. At last Lieutenant
Willoughby ordered Sergeant Scully to fire the train. In a moment there
was a great upheaval. Hundreds of rebels were blown into the air; but
unfortunately the greater part of the stores fell into the enemy's
hands. Willoughby and three others got away out of the city scorched,
bruised, and insensible; but Willoughby was murdered a few days
afterwards in a neighbouring village. Scully was wounded by the
explosion, and killed by the rebels; he and his four companions were
seen no more.
[Sidenote: Flight from Flagstaff Tower.]
By this time all hope of rescue had died out from the fugitives in
Flagstaff Tower. It was feared that the rebels would return to the Ridge
to complete the work of slaughter. All fled the best way they
could--men, ladies, and children; some in carriages, others on
horseback, and many on foot. Even at this distance of time, it is
terrible to think of their sufferings. Many were slaughtered by the
rebels, but some found refuge in the houses of Hindu villagers, who
treated them with kindness and hospitality at the risk of their own
lives.
[Sidenote: Last telegram.]
Before the day was over the clerk at the telegraph office on the Ridge
sent his last telegram. "The mutineers from Meerut are masters of Delhi;
several Europeans have been murdered; the office must be closed."
Shortly afterwards the rebel sepoys swarmed out of the city to complete
the work of destruction on the Ridge, and the poor telegraph clerk was
cut to pieces and heard of no more.
[Sidenote: Sudden alarm.]
Within a few moments the fatal news reached every capital in
India:--Lahore in the Punjab; Agra and Allahabad in the North-West
Provinces; Lucknow in Oudh; Benares, Patna, and Calcutta in Bengal;
Bombay in the Deccan; Madras in the remote south. From Calcutta and
Bombay the revolt of Delhi sent a thrill through the whole British
empire. Men familiar with India, her history, and her people, could not
believe the news. It was the heaviest blow to British prestige in India
since the tragedy of the Black Hole in Calcutta. A century of European
civilisation had been swamped by a mutiny of Asiatic sepoys against
greased cartridges. Delhi was lost; the Mogul _régime_ was restored; the
North-West Provinces were slipping away from the British empire.
[Sidenote: Reviving hopes.]
The public mind was greatly agitated by the disaster. Many could not
realise the fact that Delhi had revolted; that the old king had been
proclaimed Padishah of Hindustan. Others rushed to the opposite
conclusion and thought that India was lost. In India European hearts
were kindled with a burning desire for the recovery of the revolted
city. It was hoped that Delhi would be retaken in a few days, and the
contagion of mutiny brought to a close by the destruction of the
mutineers. Indeed it was obvious to the British authorities that the
European forces at Meerut might have crushed the rebellion at the
outset, had a Clive, a Gillespie, or an Ochterlony been in command. Sir
Henry Lawrence had suppressed a still more dangerous outbreak at Lucknow
with a disaffected city in his rear, and the revolt at Delhi ought to be
suppressed at once in a like manner.
[Sidenote: General Anson at Simla.]
§11. General Anson, the commander-in-chief of the Bengal army, was at
Simla in the Himalayas, nearly 200 miles to the north of Delhi. He was
an officer of good repute, but of no Indian experience, and was chiefly
known as the Major A., who had written a treatise on whist. He received
a telegram from Lord Canning to make short work of Delhi, and other
telegrams to the same effect from Mr. John Lawrence, the chief
commissioner of the Punjab. General Anson began to assemble a force at
Umballa, and he despatched a regiment of Ghorkas to the Sutlej to escort
a siege-train from the Punjab over the river. He was anxious to fortify
Umballa, about sixty miles from Simla on the road to Delhi. He ordered
three European regiments on the Himalayas to march at once to Umballa.
John Lawrence, however, was dead against any delay. He wanted to recover
Delhi, not to entrench Umballa; and he promptly telegraphed that "clubs
were trumps, not spades." Meanwhile the sudden change from the cool
hills to the hot plains brought on cholera amongst the Europeans. The
vanguard of the European force left Umballa on the 19th of May, but
eight days afterwards General Anson died of cholera.
[Sidenote: Demand for European soldiers.]
Meanwhile Lord Canning had telegraphed to Bombay for the European troops
that were returning from the Persian expedition, and to Madras, Ceylon,
Burma, and Singapore for every European soldier that could be spared.
His object was to form a European column at Calcutta, and to push it up
the valley of the Ganges with all speed to Allahabad, to crush any
incipient mutiny on the way, and to penetrate and suppress the growing
disaffection in Oudh and the North-West Provinces. It was out of the
question that a column from Calcutta could reach Delhi, and he looked to
Mr. John Lawrence, the chief commissioner of the Punjab on the other
side of Delhi, to send all the Europeans and artillery he could spare to
join General Anson.
[Sidenote: General Barnard.]
Sir Henry Barnard succeeded Anson as commander-in-chief. He pushed on
the force to Alipore, within ten miles of Delhi. On the 7th of June he
was joined by the European brigade from Meerut, and prepared to advance
against Delhi.
[Sidenote: Rebel position.]
By this time the Delhi rebels were prepared to await an attack in the
open. They had taken up a strong position to the right of the great
trunk road leading to the city, and had utilised its natural advantages
with remarkable skill. One body of rebels was posted in a vast
caravanserai; a square enclosed by walls, with towers at the four
corners. The walls were loop-holed for musketry, and the towers were
occupied by sharp-shooters. In front of the caravanserai they had a
battery of artillery and a howitzer, raised on an elevation and defended
by earthworks, faggots and gabions. The main force, however, was posted
in a neighbouring village, where the houses and gardens furnished an
excellent cover for infantry. This position was defended by seven
regiments of sepoy infantry, two of sepoy cavalry, and a strong battery
of sepoy artillery. To those regular forces were added the artillerymen
of the palace at Delhi, and volunteers of all kinds, attracted by hatred
of the Feringhi, enthusiasm for Islam, and thirst for blood and plunder.
[Sidenote: Battle of the Serai.]
The battle of Serai was fought on the 9th of June. At sunrise Sir Henry
Barnard advanced with two regiments of European infantry and two guns.
He could not silence the fire of the rebel battery, and it was carried
with the bayonet by a regiment of European infantry. Meanwhile the other
regiment drove the rebels away out of the village. The combined British
force stormed the caravanserai and gave no quarter. At this juncture
Brigadier Hope Grant appeared with three squadrons of cavalry and two
guns, and utterly routed the rebel army and pursued it to the suburbs of
Delhi.
[Sidenote: Return to the Ridge.]
That same afternoon the British returned as conquerors to the old
cantonment on the Ridge. Within a month of the revolt, they had avenged
the massacre at Delhi, and restored the prestige of British sovereignty.
[Sidenote: Sepoy vagaries.]
The battle of Serai revealed strange inconsistencies. The rebel sepoys,
who had shot down their officers, and were in open revolt against
British rule, were as proud as before of their exploits under British
colours. The Company's medals were found on the red coats of the dead
rebels, officers as well as men. Stranger still, pouches full of the
very greased cartridges that brought on the mutiny were picked up on the
ground occupied by the rebel army.
[Sidenote: Mischievous delay.]
The month's delay however had done considerable mischief. The plague of
mutiny had broken out at other stations, and the rebel garrison at Delhi
had been reinforced by large bodies of mutinous sepoys. The details were
nearly all alike--sudden outbreaks, shooting at officers, setting fire
to bungalows, and plundering the treasury. The mutineers, however, did
not in all cases rush off to Delhi. Some crept sadly to their own homes,
and buried the silver rupees they had brought away, or joined the bands
of outlaws and brigands that began to ravage the surrounding country.
Meanwhile the European officers of nearly every sepoy regiment, whilst
ready to believe that other regiments would revolt, were prepared to
stake their lives on the fidelity of their own men, and opposed any
attempt to disarm them.
[Sidenote: Rebellion in the North-West Provinces.]
In due course the disaffection of the sepoy army began to stir up
certain classes of the civil population. The Bengal provinces were free
from this taint, excepting perhaps at Patna where the Mohammedans are
very strong. Indeed in Bengal proper the Hindu villagers often arrested
rebel sepoys of their own free will, and made them over to the British
authorities. In the Madras and Bombay presidencies there were no signs
of discontent. But in Oudh, as already described, and in the North-West
Provinces between Delhi and Allahabad, there was a growing disaffection.
Rebellion was preached by Mohammedan fanatics yearning for the
restoration of Islam as the dominant religion. Dispossessed talukdars,
who thought themselves, rightly or wrongly to have been unjustly dealt
with in the settlement of the land revenue, took a part in the
disturbances. In a word all the turbulent and ill-conditioned elements
of the population in the north-west,--all "who were discontented or in
debt,"--readily joined in the insurrection; possibly to revenge some
fancied injury, but mostly from that love of riot and plunder which had
been universal in Hindustan under Mahratta supremacy. At the same time a
spirit of hostility to Europeans was manifested, which was without
precedent in the history of British rule in India. Towards the end of
June, Mr. John Colvin, the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West
Provinces, with all the European residents in the neighbourhood were
closely besieged by mutineers and rebels in the fortress of Agra.
[Sidenote: Siege of Delhi: perils of British.]
§12. The British force reached the Ridge on the evening of the battle.
It then numbered 4,000 troops, half Europeans and the other half Sikhs
and Ghorkas. The city might have been taken by surprise at an earlier
date, but the month's delay had elated the sepoys, and given them time
to look to their defences. The British troops were encamped behind the
Ridge, and were thus protected from the fire of the rebels. They were,
however, the besieged rather than the besiegers. They were threatened on
all sides, except the rear, by mutineers and rebels. The rear, however,
was open to the Punjab, and all reinforcements and supplies were brought
up from the Punjab. For weeks, and indeed for months, the British force
could only hope to hold their position until reinforcements could arrive
from Lahore or Calcutta. The city of Delhi was strongly fortified with
walls and bastions loaded with cannon, and environed by a broad, deep
ditch, filled from the river Jumna, which rendered it as impregnable as
Babylon of old. It was impossible to storm such fortifications without a
strong army of British soldiers and an adequate siege train, all of
which were anxiously expected from the Punjab.
[Sidenote: Strength of the rebels.]
Meanwhile the rebels inside the walls of Delhi were being constantly
reinforced by fresh bodies of mutineers. They were in possession of the
arms, ammunition, and other stores, which had been collected in the
British magazine for more than a generation. They were in receipt of
daily supplies of provisions from the neighbouring villages, and it was
impossible to cut off the convoys. A force of 4,000 men could scarcely
be expected to environ a city seven miles in circumference, or even to
approach within cannon shot of the walls.
[Sidenote: Punjab and John Lawrence.]
§13. Bengal was completely separated from Delhi by the disaffection
which flooded the North-west Provinces. All hope of crushing the rebels
at Delhi rested on the Punjab; and John Lawrence sent Europeans and
Sikhs, siege guns and supplies of all kinds, as fast as they were
available to the British force behind the Ridge. In June the "Punjab
Guides" reached the Ridge, one of the best regiments in the Indian army.
It belonged to the Punjab Frontier Force, which was recruited from the
mountain tribes between the Punjab and Afghanistan, and trained and
commanded by British officers.
[Sidenote: Sikh hatred of Mohammedans.]
In 1857 the Sikhs had learnt to respect their European rulers, who
maintained order and law. They had no sympathy for the Mohammedans, nor
for the king of Delhi. On the contrary, they remembered the murder of
their Gurus and saints by Aurangzeb and his successors, and were burning
to be revenged on Delhi and the Mogul. During the reign of Runjeet Singh
they had outraged the Mohammedans of the Punjab by polluting their
mosques and profaning the tombs of their holy men. Accordingly the Sikh
warriors of the Khalsa, the very men who had fought against British
supremacy at Chillianwalla and Goojerat, were now anxious to join the
Europeans in putting down the revolt at Delhi and sacking the capital of
Islam in India.
[Sidenote: Mutinous spirit of sepoy garrisons.]
John Lawrence had thus nothing to fear from the Sikhs. Nor had he
anything to fear from the Mohammedans, for they were only anxious for
protection against the Sikhs. The Hindus of the Punjab cared for no one
but themselves; most of them were traders and money-lenders whose
interests were bound up in the maintenance of British rule. The terror
of the Punjab lay in the sepoy regiments of the Bengal army that
garrisoned the country. The sepoys in the Punjab had no real ground for
alarm at the greased cartridges; the issue had been stopped at the
school of musketry at Sealkote, on the Cashmere frontier. But the
contagion was as virulent as ever. They were maddened by the conviction
that the British government was bent on destroying their religion and
caste; and when they heard of the outbreak at Meerut and revolt at
Delhi, they were bent on mutiny and massacre.
[Sidenote: Lahore and Mian Mir.]
Lahore, the capital of the Punjab, is situated in the heart of the
province, about half-way between Delhi and Peshawar. The fortress at
Lahore was held by a battalion of Bengal sepoys, which was relieved once
every fortnight--that is, on the 1st and 15th of every month. There was
also a European guard within the fortress of about a hundred British
soldiers. Six miles from Lahore was the cantonment of Mian Mir, where
three regiments of Bengal sepoys were quartered, together with one
regiment of Europeans, and two batteries of European artillery.
[Sidenote: Sepoy plots.]
§14. News of the revolt at Delhi reached Lahore on the 12th of May.
Without a moment's delay, a secret plot was formed between the sepoys in
the fortress at Lahore and those in the cantonment at Mian Mir for the
slaughter of Europeans. On the 15th May, when the sepoy battalion in the
fortress was to be relieved by another sepoy battalion, the two were to
join together, murder their own officers and then overwhelm the European
guard. A signal was thereupon to be given to the cantonment at Mian Mir,
on which the sepoy regiments were to break out in mutiny, murder the
officers, and environ and overwhelm the regiment of Europeans.
[Sidenote: Defeated.]
Fortunately the plot was betrayed by a Brahman to the British
authorities, and the scheme was defeated. On the morning of the 15th of
May, the sepoy regiments in the cantonment at Mian Mir were drawn up on
parade as usual. Suddenly, they were ordered with a loud voice to lay
down their arms. Before them was a thin line of European infantry which
presently fell back, and revealed the mouths of twelve guns pointed at
the sepoys with lighted fires. The European infantry began to load their
rifles behind the artillery, and the sepoys could hear the clicking of
locks and ramrods. The would-be rebels saw that the game was up. They
threw away their muskets and sabres in sheer terror. More than 3,000
Asiatic sepoys, who were preparing to murder their officers, had
surrendered their arms to less than 600 Europeans. The plot in the
fortress at Lahore was crushed in a like fashion. The European guards
had been strongly reinforced by a detachment from the regiment at the
cantonment at Mian Mir; and the two sepoy battalions were disarmed
before they could unite for the slaughter of Europeans.
[Sidenote: Chamberlain's flying column.]
Later on it was found that all the Bengal sepoys in the Punjab were more
or less tainted. Measures were taken to avert or counteract the evil.
Suspected regiments were removed to localities where the Sikhs were most
hostile to the Bengal army. A flying column of Europeans, Sikhs and
others, was organised to act against threatened points and overawe
intending mutineers by rapid movement and vigorous action. In the first
instance it was commanded by Brigadier Neville Chamberlain, who rose to
be one of the most distinguished officers of the time. Later on, the
column was commanded by Brigadier John Nicholson, the hero of the day,
who, as will be seen hereafter, was cut off in the very zenith of his
fame.
[Sidenote: Peshawar valley.]
§15. The valley of Peshawar was another cause of anxiety. It lies in the
north-west corner of the Punjab beyond the river Indus, and faces the
Khyber Pass. It is the key to India, the route by which Alexander the
Great and the early Mohammedan conquerors invaded the Punjab.
[Sidenote: Frontier tribes.]
Ever since the British conquest, the Peshawar valley had been harassed
by the same mountain tribes that had worried the Macedonians, the
Mohammedans, and the Sikhs under Runjeet Singh. Tribes living within the
circle of British outposts could be compelled to live in peace; but
tribes living beyond the border, and outside British influence, were
turbulent, murderous and predatory. Occasionally they assassinated a
British officer, or gave an asylum to criminals, or committed raids on
British territory or on tribes living under British protection, and not
unfrequently stole horses and other property from the British
cantonment. All this while they were strictly forbidden to cross the
border into British territory; and any tribesman who dared to disobey
this law, was liable to arrest and imprisonment until the elders of his
tribe made their submission and paid a fine.
[Sidenote: Peshawar cantonment.]
The valley of Peshawar was held by 9,000 Bengal sepoys and about 3,000
Europeans. Here, as at Lahore, there was a perpetual fear of mutiny and
murder. A secret enemy was dwelling in the British camp that was
capable of any amount of secrecy and treachery. Accordingly the
cantonment was declared in a state of siege. The Europeans took up
strong positions, and some of the Bengal regiments were disarmed.
[Sidenote: Mutiny and murder.]
§16. Towards the end of May a sepoy regiment rose against its officers.
The colonel had staked his life on the fidelity of his men, and they had
not been disarmed; and owing to this infatuated belief in the fidelity
of the sepoys, the rebels had been able to set out for Delhi with their
arms and ammunition. The colonel was in the ranks to the last, labouring
to keep the men to their colours; but his efforts were vain, and he
retired broken-hearted and shot himself. The rebels, however, were
pursued and scattered, by the flying column under Neville Chamberlain,
and 120 were taken prisoners and brought back to Peshawar.
[Sidenote: Executions at Peshawar.]
The prisoners were tried for mutiny and were all condemned to death. But
John Lawrence recoiled from such wholesale executions. He did not want
to exact vengeance on the mutineers, but to terrify other regiments from
following their example. Forty of the worst were sentenced to death, but
the remaining eighty were imprisoned for periods varying from three to
seven years. The condemned forty were blown from guns at Peshawar on the
10th of June.
[Sidenote: Volunteering of Sikhs and tribes.]
The disarmament of the sepoy regiments, and the executions at Peshawar,
convinced the populations of the Punjab that the British were masters.
There may have been some of the old Sikh soldiers of the Khalsa, who
were still yearning for the expulsion of the British from the land of
the five rivers; but even in their case the old hostility was forgotten
in the feverish longing to be revenged on Delhi for the persecution and
slaughter of their saints. Possibly they were still more eager to
plunder the palaces and bazaars of Delhi. The mountain tribes outside
the British frontier, who professed to be Mohammedans, were as
enthusiastic as the Sikhs to share in the sack of Delhi. They implored
pardon for all past offences, paid up all fines, and volunteered to help
the British to capture the revolted city.
[Sidenote: Sore peril.]
John Lawrence sent the Punjab Guides to Delhi, and raised nineteen or
twenty regiments of Sikhs and others. But he could not spare more
Europeans. Mutiny threatened him on all sides. At Julinder three Bengal
regiments murdered their officers, broke open prisons, and ran off to
Delhi before the flying column under Neville Chamberlain could overtake
them.
[Sidenote: John Nicholson, the sainted warrior.]
§17. At this crisis Neville Chamberlain was sent to join the British
force on the Ridge, and John Nicholson took the command of the flying
column. He disarmed several sepoy regiments without firing a shot, but
had no mercy for rebels. He was a fine type of the zealous and
single-minded European officers of the old East India Company's army; a
hero who was reverenced by Asiatic soldiery for his dash and valour, and
worshipped by his men as one of the demigods of India. Indeed in one
case the worship of Nicholson was literal. A religious fraternity of
Sikhs took the name of "Nicholsons"; or as they pronounced it "Nikkal
Scynes." They wore salmon-coloured garments and black felt hats as a
distinctive garb, and they sang hymns with a chorus of "Guru Nikkal
Scyne." In 1854 a deputation of these worshippers waited on Nicholson,
threw themselves at his feet and chanted his praises. He remonstrated,
but they persisted, and he ordered his native servants to whip the
nonsense out of them. The devotees, however, gloried in being flogged,
and declared that it was a just punishment for their sins. Nicholson was
obliged to run away from his worshippers. It will be seen hereafter that
he fell in the storming of Delhi. When the news of his death reached the
fraternity, two of them committed suicide, whilst the third embraced
Christianity out of respect for the memory of his "Guru."
[Sidenote: Proposed withdrawal from Peshawar.]
§18. John Lawrence was hedged round with dangers. European regiments
were urgently demanded for the siege of Delhi, and he could not spare a
man. He was compelled to keep 3,000 Europeans for the defence of the
valley of Peshawar, and he had only 2,000 Europeans left to garrison the
rest of the Punjab. In this dilemma he proposed to abandon Peshawar and
make it over to Dost Mohammed Khan of Cabul. He argued that if the force
locked up in Peshawar could be sent against Delhi, the city might be
captured in a week, and the revolt brought to a close. Subsequent events
strengthened this impression. On the 23rd of June, the centenary of the
battle of Plassy, the besieging force at Delhi was nearly overpowered by
the rebels. Several sepoy regiments had mutinied in Rohilcund, to the
north-west of Oudh, and joined the rebels at Delhi. The Gwalior
contingent, a subsidiary force officered by Europeans, and maintained
in Sindia's territory, had broken out in mutiny. Altogether John
Lawrence was convinced that Delhi must be captured at all hazards, and
that it was absolutely necessary to retire from Peshawar.
[Sidenote: Opposition.]
But the military authorities at Peshawar, including General Sidney
Cotton and Colonel Herbert Edwardes, vehemently opposed the measure.
They were unanimously agreed that the loss of Peshawar would entail such
a loss of prestige as to turn Sikhs and Afghans against the British
government. They urged that relief might be already at hand; that five
or six European regiments might be advancing from Bengal to Delhi, and
that four or five times that number might be on the high seas from
England.
[Sidenote: Negatived by Lord Canning.]
The burning question was referred to Calcutta for the decision of Lord
Canning. The reply was a long time coming, but it settled the matter at
once. "Hold on Peshawar to the last!" John Lawrence was overruled.
[Sidenote: Mutiny at Sealkote.]
§19. In this extremity John Lawrence determined to disarm every Bengal
sepoy in the Punjab, and then to send every European soldier and gun to
Delhi that could be spared. Nicholson hurried on the disarming, when
news arrived that the sepoy brigade at Sealkote, on the Cashmere
frontier, had broken out in revolt, murdered their officers, and then
gone off to Delhi. Nicholson hurried after the brigade, overtook it on
the banks of the Ravi, and almost annihilated it. Nearly every rebel was
slain, or drowned in the river, or surrendered by the villagers to the
British authorities.
[Sidenote: Terrible execution.]
There was one more tragedy in the Punjab which cannot be ignored. A
sepoy regiment mutinied after it was disarmed, and tried to escape to
Delhi. It was pursued by a British magistrate with a detachment of
irregular horse. About 280 escaped to an island in a river, and being
without arms and without food, they were compelled to surrender. The
magistrate, however, could not possibly dispose of 280 rebels. He could
not imprison them, and it was dangerous to let them loose. In this
terrible emergency he saw no alternative but to have them shot in gangs.
It was a measure which can only be justified by the law of self-defence
and state necessity. The magistrate left the scene pale and
trembling.[29]
[Sidenote: Siege of Delhi.]
§20. Towards the end of June the hot season passed away. The rains
began; military operations before Delhi became possible in the daytime.
Sir Henry Barnard died on the 5th of July, and was succeeded by General
Archduke Wilson. On the 14th of July an attack on the British outposts
was repulsed by General Chamberlain. Towards the middle of August, John
Nicholson arrived from the Punjab with his flying column. On the 4th of
September a heavy siege train arrived from the Punjab, and fifty large
guns were placed in position.
[Sidenote: Captured, September 1857.]
From the 8th to the 12th of September, four batteries poured a constant
storm of shot and shell on the doomed city. On the 13th the breaches
were practicable. At three o'clock on the following morning, three
assaulting columns were formed in the trenches, whilst a fourth was kept
in reserve. The Cashmere gate was blown open by gunpowder; one column
pushed through the gateway, whilst the others escaladed the breaches.
The advancing columns were exposed to a ceaseless fire from houses,
mosques, and other buildings, and John Nicholson received a mortal
wound. Then followed six days of desperate street fighting. On the 20th
of September the British flag waved in triumph over the old capital of
Hindustan and the palace of the Great Mogul.[30]
[Sidenote: Peace in the north-west.]
Immediately after the fall of Delhi, a column was sent down the grand
trunk road, to relieve the fortress at Agra, and to open up
communications between Delhi and Allahabad. Within a few short months
peace and order were restored to the North-West Provinces, and the
brigandage and anarchy which for a brief interval revived the memory of
the old Mahratta days, disappeared, it is hoped for ever, from
Hindustan.[31]
FOOTNOTES:
[27] _English and India_, by M. E. de Valbezen, late Consul-General at
Calcutta, Minister Plenipotentiary.
[28] During the first Cabul war of 1839-42, Hindu sepoys were taken
prisoners by the Afghans, and subjected to a similar process in order
to convert them to Islam. But times had changed since the
establishment of British supremacy. Money would expiate any spiritual
crime, or purchase any pardon or privilege from the Brahmans. When the
prisoners returned to India they received back pay from the British
government for the whole term of their captivity. Accordingly, after a
long series of abstruse calculations, the Brahmans discovered that
this back pay would exactly meet the cost of expiation. But the sepoys
refused the bait. They preferred keeping the back pay in their
pockets, and remaining within the fold of Islam. What became of their
Hindu wives and families is a mystery to this day.
[29] This last fact was vouched by an English civil servant who was
living at the time with the late Mr. Cooper, the magistrate in
question. Unfortunately Mr. Cooper subsequently published a
description of the execution in a tone of levity which was generally
condemned.
[30] Eventually the king and his family were sent to Rangoon, where he
died in 1862.
[31] Mr. John Colvin, a distinguished Bengal civilian and
Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces, who was shut up in
the fortress at Agra, died during the siege. Many old Anglo-Indians
still remember his career with interest. He was private secretary to
Lord Auckland during the first Cabul war. His son, Sir Auckland Colvin
of the Bengal Civil Service, is now Financial Minister to the
Government of India under Lord Dufferin.