Indian Mutiny

Indian Mutiny
10 May 1857-19 April 1959
Chronological list of Wars and Campaigns
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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:

• Mutiny at Berhampore 27 February
• Mutiny at Barrackpore 29 March
• Mutiny at Lucknow 1 May
• Mutiny at Meerut 10 May
• Mutiny at Fyzabad 10 May
• Mutiny at Delhi 11 May
• Mutiny at Ferozepore 13 May
• Mutiny at Meean Meer 13 May
• Mutiny at Allygurh 20 May
• Mutiny at Mynpoorie 23 May
• Mutiny at Nusseerabad 28 May
• Mutiny at Bareilly 31 May
• Mutiny at Saharunpore 2 June
• Mutiny at Azimguhr 3 June
• Mutiny at Benares 3 June
• Mutiny at Seetapore 4 June
• Mutiny at Jhansi 5 June
• Mutiny at Allahabad 6 June
• Mutiny at Sealkote 9 July
• Mutiny at Jhelum 17 July

Campaigns

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

• Delhi Campaign May-Sept 1857
• Events at Lucknow May 1857-Mar 1858
• Events at Cawnpore Jun-Jul 1857
• Havelock's Campaign Jul-Sep 1857
• Showers' Movable Column Sep-Nov 1857
• Greathed's Movable Column Sep-Nov 1857
• Seaton's Movable Column Dec 1857- Oct 1858
• Trans-Gogra Campaign Nov 1857-Dec 1858
• Oude Campaign Dec 1857-Nov 1858
• Central India Campaign Dec 1857-Jan 1859
• Rohilcund Campaign Apr-May 1858

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.

FIBIS resources

• Indian Mutiny Medal Roll (British Forces) 1857-1859 - a medal roll transcription with over 50,000 names of British Army soldiers awarded medals
• Supplement to The London Gazette - around 2000 names of Europeans killed or wounded by disaffected soldiers or local residents as reported in the London Gazette
• The Diary of a Medical Officer during the Great Indian Mutiny

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.

• Memorials of the Indian Mutiny Online site listing soldiers of both British and HEIC regiments who were killed during the Mutiny.

Recommended Reading

	The FIBIS Google Books Library has books tagged: Indian Mutiny

See also the Military reading list.

"Indian Mutiny" by Saul David 2002 ISBN 0141005548

"My Indian Mutiny Diary" by WH Russell 1967 ISBN 0527781207

"The Last Mughal" by William Dalrymple 2006 ISBN 978-0747587262

"The Great Uprising in India" by Rosie Llewellyn Jones 2007 ISBN 978-1843833048

"Angels of Albion - women of the Indian Mutiny" by Jane Robinson 1996 ISBN 978-0670 846702

'The Indian 'Mutiny' 1857-58 - A Guide to source material in the India Office Library and Records by Rosemary Seton ISBN 0-7123-0041-4

External Links

General

• Indian Mutiny 1857-59 The British Empire site
• Alphabetical list of Mutiny locations Google Books
• Indian Rebellion of 1857 Wikipedia
• Timeline of the Mutiny Wikipedia
• Chronological Table of Events Google Books
• Another chronology Google Books
• Disposition of the Bengal Army January 1857 Google Books
• Mutiny at the Margins the University of Edinburgh’s website

• Catalogue of Resources in UK Libraries in conjunction with Mutiny at the Margins

• 1857-1858 The Great Rebellion pdf West Bengal Information and Cultural Affairs Dept. The article contains illustrations from the West Bengal State Archives
• VCs in the Indian Mutiny Wikipedia
• "Reflections from Lucknow on the Great Uprising of 1857" by Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones from the United Service Institution of India website.
• Rajeshkhilari’s 1857 - India's first war of independence Album of illustrations Webshots.com
• Irregular Correspondence is a collection of letters by the three eldest sons of John and Eliza Laurie, to their parents. Includes the letters from India 1858-1861, of Lieutenant Julius Laurie of the 34th Foot. (Website by William Dyson-Laurie)

Maps

• Schwartzberg Historical Atlas - Indian Mutiny Map
• Schwartzberg Historical Atlas - Administrative Divisions 1857
• Northern India in the Mutiny British Empire website

Historical newspapers and books online

• (British Library) British Newspapers Online - Sepoy Mutiny - Background context and links to free to view contemporary newspaper articles
• Military Divisions in India at the outbreak of the Mutiny in The history of the Indian revolt and of the expeditions to Persia, China & Japan by George Dodd (Google Books)
• The Mutiny of the Bengal Army by George Bruce Malleson (1858) (Google Books)
• Bulletins and other state intelligence. Compiled and arranged from the official documents published in the London Gazette. These volumes, mainly the middle six, include information about the military events and contain lists of casualties during the Indian Mutiny. (refer FIBIS database, above) Published in these volumes 1859-1862. Google Books.
  • 1857 Part 1, January to June, 1857 Part 2, July to December, with Index under entry 'India Board'
  • 1858 Part 1,1858 Part 2, 1858 Part 3, 1858 Part 4 with Index under entry 'India Board'
  • 1859 Part 1, January to June, 1859 Part 2, July to December with Index under entry 'India Office'
• The London Gazette Extraordinary Wednesday, February 17, 1858, (page 811) consisting of 34 pages relating to the Indian Mutiny. Includes "a complete nominal roll of officers, members of the Uncovenanted Service, and women and children of the garrison of Lucknow" (page 839). This link advises there were corrections in subsequent Gazettes
• The History of the Indian Mutiny, Volume 1 and Volume 2 by Charles Ball, 1858, are available on the Digital Library of India website. Index pages commence computer page 756, Volume 1 and computer page 4, Volume 2

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

• A History of the Sepoy War in India, 1857-1858 by John William Kaye Archive.org Volume 1 1864, Volume 2 1874, Volume 3 1876
• History of the Indian Mutiny, 1857-1858: Commencing from the close of the second volume of Sir John Kaye's History of the Sepoy War by Colonel G.B. Malleson Archive.org
  • Volume 1 1878, Volume 3 (title History of the Indian Mutiny 1857-1859) 1880
• Analytical index to Sir John W. Kaye's History of the Sepoy War and Col. G.B. Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny by Frederic Pincott. 1880 Archive.org
• A History of the Indian Mutiny and of the disturbances which accompanied it among the civil population by T. Rice Holmes 5th edition revised 1898, originally published 1883. Archive.org. Index, page 639
• Selections from the letters, despatches and other state papers preserved in the Military department of the government of India, 1857-58 edited by George W. Forrest Archive.org
  • Volume 1 1893, Volume 3 1902, Volume 4 1912
• A History of the Indian Mutiny; reviewed and illustrated from original documents by G W Forrest CIE 1904-12 Archive.org Volume I, Volume II, Volume III.
• Disposition of Troops in the Punjab prior to the Mutiny in The Crisis in the Punjab, from the 10th of May Until the Fall of Delhi by Frederic Henry Cooper (Google Books)
• "No. CXVII—Mutinies in India (Bengal): Further Papers (No. 6, in continuation of No. 4,) relative to the Mutinies in the East Indies" etc, including "Central Provinces", pages 326-446 (computer pages 138-258) 'Series F British India, Colonies etc' Annals of British Legislation, Volume 5 edited by Leone Levi 1859 Google Books
• 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
• Joseph Fahrer of the Bengal Medical Service was the Residency Surgeon at Lucknow from 1853 and attended Sir Henry Lawrence when mortally wounded. His account of the Mutiny period is from Recollections of My Life, page 130 by Surgeon-General Sir Joseph Fayrer 1900 Archive.org.
• Forty One Years in India: From subaltern to commander-in-chief Volume 1 by Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar 1897 Chapter 6 onwards. Archive.org Volume 2 1898
• Lieutenant General Crommelin, C.B.: Royal (Bengal) Engineers; a Memoir and a Retrospect in the Year of the Mutiny in India by Charles Hervey 1887 Archive.org
• Life and travels of James Fisher: an autobiography, page 32 by James Fisher 1890 Archive.org. During the Indian Mutiny the author belonged to a British Army regiment, 2nd Battalion Military Train, whose duty was a mounted transport. (This regiment was later part of the Royal Army Service Corps and nowadays the Royal Logistic Corps)
• Through the Mutiny, reminiscences of thirty years' active service and sport in India, 1854-83 by Thomas Nicholls Walker 1907 Archive.org
• Fatehgarh And The Mutiny by F R Cosens (and C L Wallace) 1933 Osmania University Digital Library [OUDL]
• The Revolt in Central India 1857-1859 compiled by Army Headquarters, India 1908. Archive.org
• History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol I by Maj-Gen Whitworth Porter 1889 Volume I The Indian Mutiny archive.org
  
• Heroes of the Indian Mutiny: stories of heroic deeds by Edward Gilliat 1914 Archive.org
• 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
  • "Notes on the History and Services of the Thirty-Second Regiment" The middle parts of this article, are available as follows: page 114, page 218, page 299. Unfortunately, the earlier and later parts of this article in earlier and later volumes are not available online. They are however, available at the British Library.
  • "Martyrs, an Episode in the Indian Mutiny" by Major Picton Warlow page 278
• Records of the Intelligence Department of the Government of the North-West Provinces of India during the Mutiny of 1857 arranged by Sir William Muir 1902 Archive.org Volume 1 Volume 2
• My Diary in India, in the year 1858-9 by William Howard Russell, Special Correspondent of The Times 1860 Google Books Volume 1, Volume 2
• "The Indian Campaigns 1857-1859" page 21, Recollections of a Life in the British Army during the latter half of the 19th Century by Gen. Sir Richard Harrison, Royal Engineers 1908 Archive.org
• How I won the Victoria Cross by Thomas Henry Kavanagh, Assistant Commissioner in Oudh, 1860 Google Books
• Chaloner of the Bengal Cavalry: a Tale of the Indian Mutiny by Percival Lancaster R E. 1915 Archive.org An adventure story for younger readers.