Bengal Artillery

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For the volunteer force formed in 1925, see Bengal Artillery (AFI).

The Bengal Artillery, part of the Bengal Army, consisted of:

• Bengal Horse Artillery
• Bengal European Foot Artillery
• Bengal Native Foot Artillery
• Punjab Horse Artillery, Punjab Irregular Force

The Bengal Artillery were the first artillery in India to be tractor drawn.

FIBIS resources

• "Looking for Gunner Hurley in India" by Malcolm Hurley Mills and Lawrie Butler

Part 1 FIBIS Journal Number 17 (Spring 2007) Part 2 FIBIS Journal Number 22 (Autumn 2009)

• "The Walsh Family and the Cawnpore Massacre" by Paddy Walsh FIBIS Journal Number 31 (Spring 2014) pages 3-15.

William Walsh joined the Bengal Artillery in 1834, as a married man, and was a pensioned Sergeant of the Artillery , working for the East India Railway at the time of the massacre

Refer FIBIS Journals for details of how to access these Journals.

Chronology

• 1749 first company raised
• 1756 company perished in the Black Hole of Calcutta
• 1765 re-formed with four companies
• 1770 fifth company raised and the five companies formed into a battalion of total complement 548 Europeans plus 2912 Lascars employed hauling the guns
• 1778 re-formed into one European Regiment (7 field and 1 mounted or garrison company) and three Native battalions (8 companies each)
• 1779 re-formed into 2 European battalions of 5 companies with 6 companies of Lascars to each company
• 1787 Artillery constituted as one of the brigades of the Army
• 1801 draught horses used for the first time instead of bullocks for field artillery; formation of the Horse Artillery

All sepoy artillery units were abolished after the Indian Mutiny and the European battalions became part of the Royal Artillery. In 1862 the Bengal Artillery was absorbed into the Royal Artillery as the 16th, 19th, 24th and 25th Brigades.

British Library

The British Library's catalogue includes

• The History of the Royal and Indian Artillery in the Mutiny of 1857 by Julian RJ Jocelyn (1915). Available from the FIBIS Amazon Shop

Uniform

• Uniform - Blue
• Facings - Scarlet
• Badge - Same as Royal Artillery

Related Articles

• Courts-martial

Historical books online

• "Memoir of Colonel Thomas Deane Pearse of the Bengal Artillery, containing numerous, and interesting extracts from his original correspondence, connected with some of the most important events in the Government of India" The British Indian Military Repository, Volume 1, 1822, and Volume 2, 1823 He was appointed Major in 1768

Part 1, Volume 1, page 1, Part 2, Volume 1, page 153, Part 3, Volume 2, page 1, Part 4, Volume 2, page 249 Google Books

• A narrative of the sufferings of James Bristow, ... during ten years captivity with Hyder Ally and Tippoo Saheb by James Bristow of the Bengal Artillery 1793 Google Books
• The murder of Staff- Serjeant Peter Malcolm by Serjeant Bryan Smith at Kurnal on 23rd December 1829. 3rd Company, 1st Battalion Artillery. Page 368 Precedents in Military Law by W Hough Lieut-Col EICS, 1855 Google Books
• Memoir of the Services of the Bengal Artillery: from the Formation of the Corps to the Present Time, with Some Account of its Internal Organization by Captain E. Buckle (1852) www.archive.org
• "The Bengal Artillery", article in the Calcutta Review Volume 9, January-June 1848.
• History of the organization, equipment, and war services of the regiment of Bengal artillery: War Services Volume 2 by Francis W Stubbs 1877. Covers the period from 1814.