Our Soldiers: Gallant Deeds of the British Army during Victoria's Reign

by William Henry Giles Kingston

The first serious outbreak took place at Meerut, when 85 out of 90 men of the 3rd Light Cavalry refused to use the cartridges. They were condemned to a long imprisonment, and their sentence was read out on parade. The next day, Sunday, 10th May, while the Europeans were at church, news was brought that the 11th and 20th Regiments of Native Infantry were assembling tumultuously on the parade-ground. Colonel Finnis, who immediately rode out to quell the disturbance, was shot by a sepoy while addressing the 20th Regiment, and cut to pieces; thirty other Europeans were speedily slaughtered, and the cantonments given to the flames. Mr Greathead, the commissioner, and his wife, were saved by the fidelity of their servants. The British troops in the place were not called out till the mutineers had time to escape to Delhi; where, on their arrival, an outbreak took place, and the greater number of the British residing there were butchered with the most horrible barbarity.

The Siege of Delhi—30th May to 20th September 1857.

It was not till many of the mutineers had fled to Delhi that the inhabitants of that city dared to rise in arms against the British. At Delhi resided a pensioner of the British Government, the last representative of the Mogul Emperors—an old man, feeble in mind and body, yet capable of atrocious mischief—who had assumed the title of the King of Delhi. He and his sons and some of his ministers were undoubtedly promoters of the revolt. By agreement with this potentate, no British troops were quartered in the city, notwithstanding that the Government had made the city the principal depot for military stores in India. The city was also inhabited by a large Mohammedan population, who clustered round the king, and clung to the traditions of their former greatness.

On the 11th of May there arrived at Delhi, early in the morning, several parties of mutineers from Meerut. They gave the signal of revolt. With scarcely a moment’s warning, military officers, civil servants of the Government, merchants, and others were set upon by the rebel sepoys and by the inhabitants of the city, and cut down without mercy. Ladies and children were butchered with every conceivable cruelty and indignity. Mr Simon Fraser, the commissioner, was murdered in the palace of the king; so was Captain Douglas, of the Palace Guards, and Mr Jennings, the chaplain, and his daughter and another lady. The regiments outside the walls in cantonments revolted, and many of the British officers were killed, though some, with a few ladies, who got over the city walls, effected their escape.

“The magazine, which was within the city walls, not far from the palace, was of course in danger from the very beginning. The officers in charge had seen the mutineers crossing the bridge in the morning, and Lieutenant Willoughby had gone in with Sir T. Metcalf to endeavour to get the gates closed. On his return, he found eight of the officers attached to the establishment—Lieutenants Forrest and Raynor, Conductors Buckley, Shaw, and Scully, Subconductor Crowe, and Sergeants Edward and Stewart—with the native Lascars and servants. Preparations were instantly begun for the defence of the magazine till the arrival of relief from Meerut, which none doubted was at hand. The magazine consisted of a number of buildings enclosed by a high wall. The gates were closed and barricaded. Inside the gate leading to the park were placed two 6-pounders, doubly charged with grape. The two sergeants stood by with lighted matches, ready, should that gate be attacked, to fire both at once, and fall back upon the body of the magazine. At the principal gate two guns were put in position, with a chevaux-de-frise on the inside; and a little behind, but bearing on the same point, were two others. Farther in were placed four more pieces, commanding two cross passages. A train was laid to the powder-magazine, ready to be fired at a given signal. Arms were put in the hands of the natives in the establishment, which they took sulkily. They were getting insolent and disobedient—the Mussulmans particularly so. Scarcely had these arrangements been made, when the Palace Guards appeared and demanded the magazine in the name of the Badsha of Delhi. No answer was given.

“The king, they heard soon after, had sent word that ladders would be immediately brought from the palace to scale the walls. The natives in the magazine scarcely concealed their hostility. One man was seen to be communicating with the mutineers outside through the gate, and ordered to be shot if he was observed doing so again. The enemy, who had thus learned what was ready for them, did not attempt to force the gates; but in a short time the scaling-ladders arrived. On their being placed against the walls, the whole of the Lascars deserted, climbing over the sloped sheds on the inside, and down the ladders. It was found that they had hid the priming-pouches. The enemy now appeared in hundreds on the walls. The guns were immediately pointed at them, and worked with wonderful rapidity considering the small number of the party. Nine Britons, alone in that great Mohammedan city, betrayed and deserted as they were, bravely thought only of holding their post till the death. The enemy kept firing down upon them. In a few minutes several of the little band were wounded; it was clear that in a few more they would all be shot. Willoughby then gave the signal for firing the powder store. Scully, who had distinguished himself in this dreadful emergency by his perfect coolness, in the most careful and methodical manner lighted the trains. The explosion took place almost immediately. The wall adjoining was thrown to the ground; numbers of the enemy were buried among the ruins; and thousands of bullets from the cartridges in store were hurled far off, striking down people in the streets. Wonderful as it may seem, half the gallant defenders of the magazine crept out alive, partly stunned, blackened, scorched, and burned, yet able to make their way through the sally-port by the river for the Cashmere gate. Lieutenants Forrest and Raynor and Conductor Buckley succeeded in escaping to Meerut. Willoughby was seen at the Cashmere gate, and set out for Meerut with three more, who were all murdered in a village on the road. Scully, who was much hurt, was killed, when trying to escape, by a sowar. The explosion of the magazine was of course seen from the flagstaff tower, and was heard even at Meerut.”

That afternoon, the sepoys who remained in the lines either deserted or revolted—a general flight took place; the Brigadier was one of the last to leave; and thus was Delhi lost.

No sooner had the Europeans gone, than the treacherous old king hoisted the green flag, and proclaimed himself Emperor of India. He had imprisoned within his palace walls forty-nine Europeans, chiefly women and children. Having for a week allowed them to be treated with the greatest cruelty, he gave them up to be further ill-treated, and finally murdered, by his soldiery. Their bodies were piled in a rotting heap at the Cashmere gate.

The day of vengeance was, however, not long delayed. On the 8th of June a small army, under Major-General Sir Henry Barnard, was collected at Alleepore, one march from Delhi. It consisted of four guns, 2nd troop 1st Brigade, 2nd and 3rd troops 3rd Brigade Horse Artillery; 3rd company 3rd Battalion Artillery, and Number 14 Horse Field-Battery; 4th company 6th Battalion Artillery: detachment Artillery recruits; Headquarters’ detachment Sappers and Miners; Her Majesty’s 9th Lancers; two squadrons Her Majesty’s 6th Dragoon Guards; headquarters and six companies 60th Royal Rifles; headquarters and nine companies of Her Majesty’s 75th Regiment; 1st Bengal Fusiliers; headquarters and six companies 2nd Fusiliers; Simoor battalion Goorkhas. On the morning of the 8th this little army advanced from Alleepore towards Delhi. They encountered, strongly intrenched, a body of mutineers 3000 in number. The enemy’s guns were well worked; the British artillery were unable to cope with them. There was only one thing to be done. The order was given to charge and capture the guns. With a ringing cheer, Her Majesty’s 75th rushed on amidst a hailstorm of musketry, and the sepoys fled in terror to their next position; for they had constructed a line of defence from the signal-tower to the late Maharajah Hindoo Rao’s house, and disputed every inch of the ground. However, by nine o’clock the army of retribution was in possession of the parade-ground and cantonments.

The latter, indeed, were now covered with masses of blackened walls, while the compounds were strewed with broken furniture, clothing, and books. Here, at about a mile and a half from the walls of Delhi, the army encamped, and waited for reinforcements.