Indian Mutiny

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Indian Mutiny
10 May 1857-19 April 1959
Chronological list of Wars and Campaigns
[[Image:|250px| ]]
Location: Gangetic Plain and Central India
Combatants:
British Army
East India Company Armies
Bengal Presidency regiments
Result: Rebellion crushed
Medals: Indian Mutiny Medal
Clasps: Delhi, Defence of Lucknow, Relief of Lucknow, Lucknow, Central India
Links:
Category:
Delhi Campaign
Events at Cawnpore
Havelock's Campaign
Showers' Movable Column
Greathed's Movable Column
Seaton's Movable Column
Trans-Gogra Campaign
Oude Campaign
Central India Campaign
Rohilcund Campaign


Preamble

The Indian Mutiny is also known as India's First War of Independence, the Great Rebellion, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Revolt of 1857, the Uprising of 1857 and the Sepoy Mutiny.

The rebellion was almost exclusively confined to the regiments in the Bengal Presidency. In 1857 the Bengal Army strength was as follows:

Cavalry Infantry Artillery Sappers Total
British troops 1,366 17,003 3,063 Nil 21,432
Indian troops 19,288 112,052 4,734 1,497 137,571
Totals 20,654 129,055 7,797 1,497 159,003

Outbreaks

Details of the outbreak of mutiny in various locations can be found in the following articles:

Campaigns

For details of the campaigns during the mutiny see the following main articles

Volunteer force

  • The Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry was a volunteer force raised in July 1857 after the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny and disbanded in 1859.
  • The Meerut Light Horse was a volunteer unit formed in 1857 at the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny. Also known as the Meerut Volunteer Horse and the Meerut Volunteer Cavalry, which had originally been formed as the District Volunteer Force. It was disbanded in 1861.

Camel Corps

The Camel Corps was formed at Lucknow on 5 April 1858 from drafts of 100 men each from the 2nd and 3rd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, to which were eventually added 200 Sikhs. The Camel Corps was used in 1858 and 1859 to support columns of soldiers despatched during the latter stages of the Indian Mutiny to hunt down groups of rebels that had fled into the countryside of Rohilkund and Oudh, and was disbanded on 1 June 1860.

FIBIS resources

Casualties

  • Available at the British Library is the publication, Casualty Roll for the Indian Mutiny, 1857-59, compiled by I. T. Taverner, published by J. B. Hayward & Son (1983), Suffolk, England (ISBN: 0 903754 98 3) pp.205. It contains name, rank and regimental number of every casualty (fatal or otherwise) of HM's (incl. Naval Brigade) & HEIC forces (by Presidency, incl. Indian Medical Service and Ecclesiastical Establishment); location and date where/when/how injured. A useful chronology of the Mutiny events and bibliography is appended.[1]
  • Military records on findypast.com include record set entitled British Casualties, Indian Mutiny 1857-1859

Recommended Reading

See Fibiwiki Military Reading List - Mutiny

External Links

General

  • Catalogue of Resources in UK Libraries in conjunction with Mutiny at the Margins
  • 1857: A Brief Political and Military Analysis by Maj (Retd) Agha Humayun Amin defencejournal.com (Pakistan), now archived webpages. Issues from July 1999 to June 2000
Chapter One "The English East India Company's Conquest Of India 1757-1849" Chapter Two "The Causes Of The Rebellion" Chapter Three "Political and Military Situation from 1839 to 1857" and Chapter Four "The Bengal Army and The Military Situation -1857" Chapter Five "Development of Situation-January to July 1857". Further chapters may be seen under particular campaigns.

Maps

Historical newspapers and books online

Histories and general

Google Books has Volume 1, and almost all of Volume 2, classified as Volumes 1-7, as follows:
Volume 1: Images, Cover page,which advises "Illustrated with Battle Scenes, Views of Places, Portraits and Maps, Beautifully Engraved On Steel" Page 1 of text, continues to page 184
Volume 2: Images, page 185, continues to page 376
Volume 3: Images, page 377, continues to page 568
Volume 4: Images, page 569, continues to page 648, end of (original) Volume 1. Page 1 of (original) Volume 2, continues to page 112
Volume 5: Images, page 113, continues to page 304
Volume 6: Images, page 305, continues to page 496
Volume 7: Images, page 497, continues to page 663, missing page 664, Index, Volume 1, page 671, Index, Volume 2, page 679
Lacks maps, but pages may be easier to read Archive.org.
Second edition 1897 With a second Preface. Archive.org.
Mutiny Records Correspondence In Two Parts [Vol. 7] Part 1; [Vol. 7] Pt.2, Pt.2 2nd file
Mutiny Records Reports [Vol.8] Pt.1, Mutiny Records Reports [Vol.8] Pt.2. Archive.org. Public Library of India Collection.
  • Heroes of the Indian Mutiny: stories of heroic deeds by Edward Gilliat 1914 Archive.org
  • A Postscript To The Records Of The Indian Mutiny Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection. Full title: A Postscript to the Records of the Indian Mutiny. An Attempt to Trace the Subsequent Careers and Fate of the Rebel Bengal Regiments, 1857-1858 by Lieutenant-Colonel G H D Gimlette 1927. “Gimlette lists all of the units of the Bengal Army and gives a short annotation of each one discussing their eventual fate”[5]
  • The Indian Mutiny In Perspective by Lieut-General Sir George MacMunn (reprint edition) first published 1931 Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection.
  • Fatehgarh And The Mutiny by F R Cosens (and C L Wallace) 1933 Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.
  • The Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the Sikhs by Ganda Singh 1969 Archive.org
  • Parliamentary papers, Volume 50 - East India (Prize Property) HMSO (1860) containing official correspondence on prize captured by HM and Company forces during Indian Mutiny actions. Details discussion on the origin and distribution of ten different prize funds. Google Books
  • "East India (Troops and Police)". Correspondence relative to the grant of the Medal to the Troops and Police employed in Suppressing the Mutiny and Rebellion in the Bombay Presidency. With Medal Rolls and details of some of the actions. Accounts and papers of the House of Commons Volume XXXVIII. Ordered to be printed 17 May 1865. Google Books.
  • The Indian Mutiny, 1857 from "Memoir of Major-General Sir Henry Marion Durand, K.C.S.I., C.B., R.E." by Lieutenant C.R, Low, (late) Indian Navy. page 376 Colburn's United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal, 1871 Part 1 Google Books
  • Colburn's United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal 1880 Part 3 Archive.org
  • The Revolt of the Bengal Sepoys by Dr Julius Berncastle 1857 Google Books
  • Revolt of the Sepoys Reprinted from the Princeton Review January 1858 by John Cameron Lowrie 1858 Google Books

Personal accounts: Army

A Lady's Diary Before and During the Indian Mutiny by M H Ouvry 1892 Archive.org. The author 's husband wrote the book above.
The Revolt in Hindustan, 1857-59 by Sir Evelyn Wood 1908 Archive.org. Based on a series of articles in The Times in October 1907.

Personal accounts: Navy

Personal accounts: Civilians and others

Fiction

The Great White Hand or, The Tiger of Cawnpore: a Story of the Indian Mutiny by J E Muddock 1896 Archive.org
  • On to the Rescue : a Tale of the Indian Mutiny by Gordon Stables, Surgeon, Royal Navy. 1894 Archive.org
  • The Red Year: a Story of the Indian Mutiny by Louis Tracy 1907 Archive.org
  • The Devils Wind by Maj. Gen. G.L. Verney 1956. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org version. An account of the actions of the Naval Brigade of H.M.S. Shannon,which participated in the Relief of Lucknow, told through the eyes of a very young sailor.
  • Shadow of the Moon by M.M. Kaye 1980 2nd file both Archive.org Lending Library. Originally published in 1957 with much of the historical content cut by the publisher, republished in its original form restored to its full length in 1980, following the great success of the author's 1978 book The Far Pavilions.

For younger readers

Gil the Gunner; or The Youngest Officer in the East by George Manville Fenn 1892 Archive.org. A boys’ adventure story about a young officer in the Bengal Horse Artillery.

References

  1. By email to User:Maureene dated 14 November 2010
  2. Snook, Mike. How did new troops get to Roorkee in 1858? Victorian Wars Forum 3 August 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  3. page 230 footnote "Notes on the History and Services of the Thirty-Second Regiment" Colburn's United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal 1880 Part 3
  4. History of the Royal and Indian Artillery in the Mutiny of 1857 by Julian R J Jocelyn. Naval & Military Press reprint edition.
  5. peterharrington.co.uk. Accessed 21 September 2016.