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fighting Delhi was finally captured on 21 September. The next day Brigadier Nicholson, who had been wounded in the assault, died. The emperor fled, but surrendered shortly after, together with his sons, who were executed on a pretext. While Delhi was being besieged, other relief operations got under way. Accompanied by about 2,000 men, Sir Henry Havelock moved towards Cawnpore and defeated Nana Sahib. On 15 July, with Havelock approaching, women and children hostages were rounded up and massacred. When even hardened mutineers refused to do the deed. civilian butchers were brought in. Relieving troops found a bloodbath, with the butchered corpses thrown down a well. Previous bloody reprisals were nothing to the punishments meted out after this. Captured mutineers were made to lick up the blood before being hanged, or tied over gun barrels and blown apart. Mutineers who surrendered under the personal guarantee of British officers were slaughtered, while officers happily looked on. Sir Henry advanced on Lucknow, reaching the edge of the city on 23 September. The sepoys built their defences expecting him to advance straight down the main road but, guided by Sir James Outram, a former British
The Residency at Lucknow, showing damage caused during the siege.
A page from the medal roll for the Mutiny Medal, listing some of those killed.
we got up to them the rascals began to show their teeth but we let fly with them right and left and then charged them but they would not stand it. They turned tail and made off helterskelter and we after them and fine fun it was only rather hot, for it was the month of June and the thermomitor (sic) at 110. We killed about 500 of them and the rest were all taken prisoner or destroyed by the villagers. “We next marched to Peshawar and it was worse than going into a nest of hornets but prompt measures were taken and such work you never saw what with shooting, hanging and blowing away from the guns, the place was one vast slaughterhouse.� News was flashed by telegraph, before the wires were cut, and slowly the British mustered forces to move against Delhi. They drove the mutineers back into the city and took up position on the low ridge outside; but plans to seize Delhi immediately were wisely abandoned. The rebels, reinforced by native troops and new mutineers, often attacked the ridge, so sometimes the British felt themselves to be the besieged. There were fewer than 2,000 British troops facing a rebel army of at least 30,000 and, short of ammunition, they often relied on firing back cannonballs which had already been fired at them. When the Commander-in-Chief, General Barnard, died from cholera, command devolved onto Brigadier Wilson. On 14 August reinforcements finally arrived from the Punjab under Brigadier Nicholson, followed by a siege train. After a week of heavy bombardment, the 25-foot high walls were breached, and Wilson planned his assault. There were only 4,500 men available, but on 13 September four columns, with another in reserve, mustered overnight. When the signal was given the men raced for the breach under a hail of fire and fought their way in, while the Kashmir Gate was blown up by the Bengal Engineers. As the mutineers fell back into the city, the British followed them. After savage street
British Library 2823
13:14
TNA:PRO WO 100/35
27/3/07
INDIAN MUTINY
MAY 2007
ANCESTORS 25