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Donald Richards - Cawnpore & Lucknow

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Donald Richards Cawnpore & Lucknow

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Following the May 1857 uprising by sepoys in Meerut and Delhi, the whole future of the British Raj was in the balance. Nowhere was this better demonstrated than at Lucknow and Cawnpore. At the latter a garrison of 240 with 375 British women and children battled to survive a siege by 3,000 mutineers led by Nana Sahib. Unimaginable horrors of artillery and sniper fire coupled with the crippling heat of the Indian summer took their toll. An offer of safe passage was treacherously reneged on and the massacres which followed drew a terrible retribution when relief finally arrived, in the shape of Generals Havelock and Neil. At Lucknow, the 1800 British men, women and children supported by more than 1,000 loyal sepoys resisted assaults by 20,000 mutineers, despite heavy casualties and sickness. Sir Colin Campbells force got through to relieve the garrison and evacuate civilians in November 1857 but the city was not restored to British control until March 1858.

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CAWNPORE
AND
LUCKNOW

For my wife, Nancy

CAWNPORE
AND
LUCKNOW

A Tale of Two Sieges

D.S. Richards

First published in Great Britain in 2007 by PEN SWORD MILITARY an imprint - photo 1

First published in Great Britain in 2007 by
PEN & SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright D.S. Richards, 2007
ISBN 1-84415-516-1

The right of D.S. Richards to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording
or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the
Publisher in writing
.

Typeset in 11/13 Sabon by Concept, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Printed and bound in England by Biddies Ltd

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of
Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military,
Wharncliffe Local History, Pen & Sword Select,
Pen & Sword Military Classics and Leo Cooper

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

CONTENTS

Lieutenant Gordon Alexander93rd of Foot
Captain R.F. Anderson25th NI
Captain George Atkinson6th NI
Mrs Katherine Mary Bartrum
Major G.W.F. Bingham64th of Foot
Ensign George Blake84th of Foot
Mrs Corlina Maxwell Brydon
Lady Charlotte Stuart Canning
Mrs Adelaide Case
Nanak ChandBankers Agent
Lieutenant Henry George Delafosse53rd NI
Mrs Emma Sophia Ewart
Colonel John Alexander Ewart1st NI
Corporal William Forbes-Mitchell93rd of Foot
Mrs Maria Vincent Germon
Cornet Hugh Gough3rd Light Cavalry
Lieutenant William GroomMadras Fusiliers
Mrs Georgina Maria Harris
Mrs Lydia Hillersdon
Miss Amelia Horne
Mrs G. Huxham
Lady The Hon. Julia Inglis
Mr John LangBarrister
Miss Alice Lindsay
Miss Caroline Lindsay
Miss Fanny Lindsay
Mrs Kate Lindsay
Lieutenant Vivian Dering MajendieRoyal Artillery
Captain John Francis Maude VCRoyal Artillery
Corporal Henry Metcalfe32nd of Foot
Lieutenant Henry Martin MoorsomRifle Brigade
Surgeon William Munro93rd of Foot
Major Charles North60th Rifles
Subedar Sita Ram PandeBengal Army Pensioner
Ensign Hugh Pearson84th of Foot
Mr L.E.R. ReesCalcutta Merchant
Lieutenant Frederick Sleigh Roberts
VCBengal Horse Artillery
Ensign J. Ruggles41st NI
Mr William Howard RussellThe Times Correspondent
Mr William Jonah ShepherdHead Clerk, Commissariat
Mr John ShererMagistrate and Collector
Sergeant Ludlow Smith48th NI
Mrs Elizabeth Sneyd
Mr William Oliver SwanstonCivilian Volunteer
Lieutenant Mowbray Thomson53rd NI
Cadet Edward Spencer WatsonHMS Shannon

On the last day of December 1600, Elizabeth I granted the Company and Merchants of London trading with east India a charter enabling them to conduct business in gems, indigo, camphor and spices. Twelve years later, with the permission of the Moghul Emperor Jahangir, they were then able to set up a permanent trading post at Surat on the west coast. Thus Britain set foot in India as merchants and until the late eighteenth century the East India Company was content to prosper by sea and in quiet trade. The French had also established a number of trading stations in India, notably at Pondicherry and at Chandernagor in Bengal, and until 1730 relations between the two rival companies were reasonably peaceful. Later, increasing tension between France and England in Europe persuaded the French East India Company to enlist native soldiers to protect their interests. John Company was quick to respond by raising a similar army and when war came, Robert Clive gained an impressive victory at Plassey in June 1757 over the combined forces of the French and the Nawab of Bengal, Suraj-ud-daula, and established the East India Company as the principal trader on the subcontinent.

During the latter half of the century the East India Company, with the support of the British Government, extended its power and influence by assuming responsibility for the armies of the three presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay. They were largely composed of native infantrymen or sepoys, and by cavalrymen known as sowars. Each regiment had its complement of native officers or jemadar, a rank equal to lieutenant, but all were subordinate to the most junior of British officers in the native regiments and were not even allowed to give orders to a British sergeant major. In addition to the Companys native regiments, there were also British Army regiments stationed in India, but by 1856 the ratio of British soldiers to Indian, was no better than one in six.

To the north-west of Bengal lay the Moghul kingdom of Oudh which had yet to feel the full impact of British rule, whilst further south, although the predominately Muslim faction had been brought under control, people nevertheless harboured a sullen resentment of the British. The many religions of India, together with the caste system, puzzled and appalled the average Englishman. The majority of Indians were Hindus and the caste system governed their entire social and emotional behaviour unlike Islam whose followers embraced the Koran and looked upon Allah as being all powerful.

It is perhaps not easy 150 years on to appreciate that the political, social and economic welfare of some 250 million souls was supervised by a few hundred young English administrators supported by less than 13,000 British troops. The precariousness of such an administration was recognized at the time by a few discerning individuals such as Sir Charles Metcalfe who wrote: Our domination of India is by conquest; it is naturally disgusting to the inhabitants and can only be maintained by military force. It is our positive duty to render them justice, protect their rights, and to study their happiness. It was a difficult balance to maintain in the face of widespread resentment, and John Sherer, a magistrate in Cawnpore, had no doubt as to the malign influence the Brahmins had on the Hindu soldiers. The Brahmins have always been the inimical force which is discontented with British supremacy, he wrote. Not because it is British, but because it is Western because the political principles of the West are all opposed to any belief in caste that is, caste as understood in India.

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