osprey [Men at Arms 067]The.Indian.Mutiny

MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES~ 67MILITARY THE INDIAN MUTINY CHRISTOPHER WILKI~SON-L\TH.\1'1 G.\ E:\1BLETON EDITOR: MARTIN WINDROW MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES~ 67MILITARY THE INDIAN MUTINY Text by CHRISTOPHER WILKINSON-LATHAM Colour plates by GAEMBLETON First published in Great Britain in Ig77 by Osprey, an imprilll of Reed Consumer Books Limited .Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, London S\\'3 6RB and Auckland, ::vlelbourne, Singapore and Toronto © Copyright '977 Reed International Books Limited Repril1led Ig80, Ig81, Ig82, Ig83, 1984, Ig8S, Ig87, '988, t989, '99 t , '994 All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private slUdy, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act, Ig88, no pan of this publicat.ion may be reproduced, storeel in a retrieval system, or transmiued in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, withollt the prior permission oflhe copyrighlowner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers. ISBN 085045 259 7 Filmset by BAS Printers Limited, Wallop, Hampshire Printed in Hong Kong The author would like to acknowledge the extensive use he has made of the following books: N. A. Chick (cd.), Annals oj the Indian Reh,llion t857-58 (London, 1859/60), C. J. Griffiths, The Siege ofDe/hi (London, 1910) and also the diary of H. D. Bishop. The photographs are by courtesy of the National Army Museum, except for nos. 14, 19,23.24. The "DevilS Wind 'I know not what course events may take. I hope they may not reach the extremity of war. I wish for a peaceful time of office, but I cannot forget that, in our Indian Empire, the greatest of all blessings depends upon a greater variety of chances and a morc precarious tenure than in any other quarter of the globe. We must not forget that in the sky or India, serene as it is, a small cloud may arise, at first nO bigger than a man's hand, but which growing bigger and bigger, may at last threaten to overwhelm us with ruin.' These words, spoken by Lord Canning at a ban- quet given in his honour by the Directors of the Honourable East India Company, on 1 August 1855, were tragically prophetic, for within two years the 'Devil's Wind' swept across the Bengal Presidency threatening the end of British rule in the jewel or the Empire. At the time or the Mutiny there were many views as to its origin; one was that it was a wide- spread conspiracy, carerully organized ror the overthrow orBritish power in India, and another that it was merely a military rising. The men with the best opportunity or judging came to diametrically opposed conclusions. Sir John Laird Muir Lawrence, KCB, Chier Commissioner or the Punja'b, held the opinion that the mutiny had its origin in the army and that its final cause was the 'cartridge affair' and nothing else. Sir James Outram, the Chier Commjssioner ror Oudh , with the supreme command of the troops in that province, believed that it was the result or a Mohammedan conspiracy making capital out or Hind 1I grievances and that the cartridge affair merely precipitated the Mutiny berore i~ had been organized into a popular insurrection. Brigadier John Nicholson, CB, stated that in his 7he flu/iall r:.Jr(U/il1J' view, 'Neither greased cartridges, the annexation or Oudh, nor the paucity or European officers were the causes. For years I have watched the army and relt sure they only wanted their 0PP0rluruty to try their strength with us.' Whichever appraisal was accepted at the time, the basic origins or the revolt or the Bengal Army lay in the reaction of the conservative section of the I ndian population to the modernizations introduced by the British, and the complete lack orknowledge about and sympathy with the people I. Lord Canning, Governor-General of India during the Mutiny. 3 2. Bahadur Shah, last of the Mughal ElDperors of India. amongst the British officers and governors of the country. It can be analysed under three headings: political, social and rel.igious, and military. The first two headings apply to general unrest which afforded a favourable climate for the third. The political causes were undoubtedly the annexations by Lord Dalhousie (Governor- General 1848-56) and his revival of the 'doctrine of lapse', whereby dependant states reverted to British rule in the event of there being no natural heir of the ruling family. Although necessary as reforms, in view of the large vested interest of the Honourable East India Company, these annexa- tions alienated the greater majority of the local rulers and instilled fear and uncertainty, as in the case of Oudh and the absorption of the great states of the Maratha pentarchy which left hardly anything of the old Mughal Empire. In effect the annexations narrowed the field in which native Indians could have any political or administrative inAuence. The devout Hindu, more especially his priests, considered that the power of the British was 4 invading the realms of both faith and caste and a widespread belief was held that Lord Canning (Governor-General 1856-62), Dalhousie's suc- cessor, had been sent to India with the brief to convert the country to Christianity. It was un- fortunate that the essayist Macaulay, at one time a member of the Governor-General's Council, had, in his writings, disparaged Hindu mythology. Suttee, the custom whereby a Hindu widow sacrificed herself on her husband's funeral pyre, and infanticide had been abolished as cruel and barbaric. Western science, astronomy and surgery were all opposed to the teachings of the Brahmins and the telegraph and railways were looked upon as magical and devilish works of the British. Sir William Lee-Warner, in his Life of the Marquess of Dalhousie said that, 'Even the most ignorant and apathetic Hindu was brought into more conscious touch with the spirit of the West during the eight years preceding 1857 than at any other period in the history of India.' From the military standpoint the balance of European and I ndian troops in India had been seriously affected by the Crimean War. By 1857 the native element in the army had reached the enormous number of 233,000 men and out- numbered the Europeans and the Queen's troops by nearly seven to one. There was also a serious deficiency of officers of the best type, needed in administrative posts on the frontier; and in addition to this the distribution of the army was bad, the great centres of Delhi and Allahabad being garrisoned entirely by native troops and there being only one British regiment (at Dina- poor) between Allahabad and Calcutta. High caste sepoys in the Bengal army, the Brahmins and Rajputs, would lose their caste if they served out of India. In the past their reluct- ance to do so had been respected, but in July 1856 the General Service Enlistment Act was passed, which forbade the enlistment of any man not willing to serve wherever he was required, even overseas if necessary. Great uneasiness was caused by this reform for it meant that all high-caste men who wanted to join the army would either have to renounce their caste or forego their chosen career. The story of the greased cartridges, although well known, must be repeated. Late in 1856 the Enfield rifle was introduced into India to replace the unrifled India pattern Brown Bess musket. Although still a muzzle-loader, the Enfield could be loaded more quickly and was far more accurate at a much longer range. With this new rifle came a novel cartridge made up with the ball and gun- powder in a narrow paper cylinder, which was heavily greased to keep the paper dry and for ease ofloading. To charge the Enfield rifle, the weapon was held in the left hand. The top of the cartridge was bitten or torn off and the powder poured into the rifle. Then the bullet, still inside the card- board cylinder, was rammed down the barrel, its passage being facilitated by the coating of grease round the base. Early in January 1857, a low-caste Lascar working at the arsenal at Dum- Dum asked a Brahmin sepoy of the garrison to give him a drink from his lotah (a bra.ss drinking bowl). The Brahmin refused, saying that the bowl would be contaminated by the lips of one of a lower caste. Jettled by the reply, the Lascar retorted that the sepoy would soon lose his caste altogether as the Government were manufactur- ing cartridges for the new rifle smeared with the fat of cows and pigs. The rumour quickly spread and with it horror, for the cow is sacred to the Hindu and the pig unclean to the Mohammedan. To the sepoys it appeared that the British were really bent on breaking their adherence to religious traditions. During the first four months of 1857, the initial rumblings of the storm were heard: outbreaks of incendiarism occurred at Barrackpore and the 19th Bengal Native Infantry was disbanded. On 29 March a more serious incident occurred at Barrackpore. Mangal Pande, a sepoy of the 34th Native Infantry, was causing a furore, probably under the influence of some drug, and calling on his comrades to join him and die for their religion and caste. While resisting arrest he wounded the regimental Sergeant-Major and the Adjutant before he was finally disarmed by Major-General Hearsey. Mangal Pande was tried by court-martial and hanged, and the 34th partially disbanded. By the beginrting of May 1857 the Army of the Bengal Presidency teetered on the brink of mutiny. A letter, written by Captain Martineau of the Musketry Depot at Ambala, uncannily 3. An Enfield rifle cartridge, c .•857' defined the causes and implications of the impending catastrophe: 'Feeling ... is as bad as can be and matters have gone so far that I can hardly devise any suitable remedy. We make a grand mistake in supposing that because we dress, arm and drill Hindustani soldiers as Euro- peans, they become one bit European in their feelings and ideas. I see them on parade for say two hours daily, but what do I know of them for the other 22? What do they talk about in their lines, what do they plot? For all I can tell I might as well be in Siberia. I know that at the present moment an unusual agitation is pervading the ranks of the entire native army, bUl what it will exactly result in, I am afraid to say. I can detect the near approach of the storm, I can hear the moaning of the hurricane, but I can't say how, when, or where it will break forth. 'Why, whence the danger, you say. Everywhere far and near, the army under some maddening impulse, are looking out with strained expectation for something, some unseen invisible agency has caused one common electric thrill to run thro' all. I don't think they know themselves what they will do, or that they have any plan of action except of resistanc~ to invasion of their religion and their faith. But, good God I Here are all the elements of combustion at hand, 100,000 men, sullen distrustful, fierce, with all their deepest and inmost sympathies, as well as worst passions, roused, and we thinking to cajole them into good humour by patting them on the back, saying what a fool you are for making such a fuss about nothing. They no longer believe us, they have passed out of restraint and will be off at a gallop before long. 'If a flare-up from any cause takes place at one station, it will spread and become universal.' 5 4. Duff'adar of the 9th Bengal Irregular Cavalry, c.1852:. ~erut The flare-up occurred at Meerut, one of the largest and most important military stations in India, some thirty miles from Delhi. Meerut seemed the most unlikely place for an insurrection as it was one of the few stations where British troops were almost as numerous as those of the Company's Bengal Army. There were some 2,200 British troops made up of the 6th Dragoon Guards, the 1st Battalion 60th Rifles, a troop of Horse Artillery, a battery of Field Artillery and a company of Foot Artillery. The three Indian regiments, amounting to less than 3,000 men, were the I Ith and 20th Native Infantry and the grd Light Cavalry. 6 On 24 April Colonel Carmichael Smyth, the zealous but unpopular commander of the grd Light Cavalry, held a parade of the ninety skir- mishers in order to explain to them thill they need no longer bite the cartridge but could tear or pinch it with their fingers. Only five out of the ninety men accepted the cartridge offered. The circumstances were reported to the officer commanding the station and the General com- manding the division, who ordered that the eighty- five skirmishers should be tried by court-martial. Fifteen native officers, six Mohammedans and nine Hindus, were appointed and, with only one dissenter, found the sowars guilty and sentenced them to ten years' hard labour. A general punishment parade was ordered at daybreak on the 9 May, at which all the troops in the cantonment were present, and drawn up to form three sides of a hollow square. Facing each other were the 60th Rifles in their dark green uni- forms and the 6th Dragoon Guards in their plumed brass helmets and blue tunics. The third side was formed by the I I th and 20th Bengal Native Infantry and, dismounted, the 3rd Light Cavalry. Positioned behind the square was a light field battery and a troop ofBengal Horse Artillery. Although the Indian troops were armed their ammunition pouches, by order, were empty. With the arrival of Major-General Hewitt the eighty-five prisoners were marched onto the parade ground by their escort, where they were stripped of their uniforms, placed in irons by the armourers and smiths of the artillery and then marched off to jail, shouting reproaches to their comrades and curses at their commanding officers. During the evening ofg May, Lieutenant Hugh Gough, son of the Commander-in-Chief in the Sikh Wars, who had recently joined the 3rd Light Cavalry, was paid a visit by a native officer of his troop who warned him that the next day the men would mutiny, break into the jail and release their comrades. Gough immediately re- ported to his commanding officer, Colonel Carmichael Smyth, who 'treated the communica- tion with contempt, reproving me for listening to such idle words'. Gough was convinced that the native officer was telling the truth so he tried again, this time repeating his story to Brigadier Archdale Wilson, the artillery officer who com- manded the station, but there the reception was no better. The morning and afternoon of the next day, Sunday 10 May, passed without incident. It was not until between five and six o'clock, as the British were preparing either for the evening service at St John's Church or to listen to the band in the park, that the Meerut cantonments were plunged into an orgy of blood and fire that marked the true beginning of the Mutiny. In the dark, narrow streets of the bazaar the sowars of the 3rd Light Cavalry, indignant but still calm, were discussing the humiliation of their comrades and considering ways of obtaining a re-trial. Goaded by the jeers of civilians and prostitutes, who reproached them for failing to help their brothers-in-arms, their tempers rose until it only needed the slightest provocation to light the flame of revolt. It was not long in coming. On their drill ground the 60th Rifles, dressed in whites and wearing only side-arms, 5. Conductor Buckley, who took part in the defence of the Delhi Ml1!-gazine and helped Lieutenants Forrest and Willoughby to blow it up when all hope was gone. were preparing for church parade. A native cook boy misconstrued the parade's intentions and quickly spread the story that the British were assembling to attack and put in irons all the sepoys and sowars they could find. Immediately the cavalrymen armed and mounted and made for the jail. As they charged up to the jail the native guards fled, leaving the way clear for the deliverance of the eighty-five skirmishers. U n- fortunately, hundreds of civil prisoners were also set free and mingled with the sowars, and in a few minutes turned the freedom-fighters into a 7 6. Atkinson lithograph of British troops on the Dlarch towards Delhi. Note typical 'shirtsleeve order', rolled trousers, curtained forage caps, etc. wild mob with a thirst for revenge, murder and destruction. The murder that set the seal on the rebellion was that of Colonel John Finnis, the commanding officer of thc I Ith Native Infantry. He had ridden down to the infantry lines to try and calm his men, who were still uncertain as to where their loyalties lay. As he was talking to them a sepoy of the 20th Native Infantry raised his musket and fired. Almost immediately other sepoys followed suit and Finnis toppled from his horse, riddled with bullets. Seeing the fate of their com- mander the 11th threw in their lot with the mutineers and began to set fire to their lines. As the infantry lines and European bungalows were set to the larch men, women and children were murdered in the most horrible circum- stances. Prompt action on the part of the British might have averted the many atrocities committed that evening, but from the outset the military commanders were caught off balance. The 8 60th Rifles, instead of being brought into action at once, were sent to change into their green uniforms, as the sergeant-major deemed white drills unsuitable for street fighting. Once they had changed there was a further delay as the roll was called. The Carabiniers were, by error, sent to the jail and not to the native parade grounds. As night fell the mutineers began to make their way towards Delhi, but there was no attempt at pursuit by the British. 'Our military authorities were paralysed ... ' wrote an ey~-witness) 'No one knew what was best to do, and nothing was done. The rebels had it all their own way .. As Meerut blazed, the senile and obese General Hewitt and his second in command, Arehdale Wilson, marshalled the entire European garrison on the 60th Rifles' parade ground and kept them there to 'repel an attack', remaining deaf lO lhe pleas of Custance and Rosser of the Carabiniers, Jones of the 60th and Tombs of the Artillery, that they be allowed to follow the mutineers. Many of the other officers were also galled by the lack of action; Hugh Gough was convinced that if a pursuit had been carried out Delhi would have been saved. In his official despatch, General Hewitt gave few details of the uprising and no information as to why there was no advance made in pursuit of the rebels. All through the night the dissidents pressed on towards Delhi, the former capital of the Mughal Empire, and early on the morning of I I May the first of them, sowars of the 3rd Light Cavalry, thundered across the Bridge of Boats that spanned the River Jumna and up to the city walls. "Delhi There were no European regiments at Delhi, and the majority of the sepoys there were only too ready to join the revolt. Lieutenant Edward Vibart of the 54th Native Infantry was an eye-witness to the day's events. 'The orderly havildar of my company came running up to my bungalow to report that th.e regiment had received orders to march down ,. Raiding party of Fusiliers bringing captured rebel guns into the camp on Delhi Ridge. Note interesting details, such as pepperbox pistol in belt of officer waving helmet and sword froID first limber. instantly to the city, as some troopers of the 3rd Light Cavalry had that morning arrived from Meerut and were creating disturbances. Hurrying on my uniform, and ordering my pony to be saddled, I without loss of time galloped down to the parade-ground, and saw the regiment falling in by companies and preparing to start. Colonel Ripley, our Commandant, who appeared much excited, was already there and giving directions. The Grenadiers and No. I (the latter my company) were ordered to proceed under command of Major Patterson to the artillery lines, in order to escort a couple ofguns to the city. We accordingly marched off at once; the rest of the regiment, with the band playing, followed