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). 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

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

Fiction

The Great White Hand or, The Tiger of Cawnpore: a Story of the Indian Mutiny by J E Muddock 1896 Archive.org

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. 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
  3. peterharrington.co.uk. Accessed 21 September 2016.