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THE INDIAN MUTINY 1857-58
No sooner had the threat to India by Russia been removed by the end of The Crimean War; British rule in India was threatened from within - by mutiny! The rebellion had many different causes - political, economic, religious and social. The sepoys of the Bengal Army had their own list of grievances against British rule and in particular the East India, mainly caused by the ethnic gulf between the British officers and their Indian troops. Other than Indian units of the British East India Company's army, much of the resistance came from the old aristocracy, who were seeing their power steadily eroded under the British. Due to the missionary activity, many Indians came to believe that the British intended to convert them to Christianity, a view which was perhaps not entirely unfounded, as the British religious fashion of the time was Evangelism, and many Honourable East India Company officers took it upon themselves to try to convert their Sepoys. However, from a military context, the spark that ignited the mutiny was the introduction of 1853 Pattern Enfield rifle. Its cartridge was covered by a greased membrane which was supposed to be cut by the teeth before the cartridges were loaded into the rifles. There was a rumour that the membrane was greased by cow or pig fat. This was offensive to Hindu and Muslim soldiers alike, who considered tasting beef or pork to be against their respective religious tenets. The British claimed that they had replaced the cartridges with new ones not made from cow and pig fat and tried to get sepoys to make their own grease from beeswax and vegetable oils but the rumour persisted. A new drill was also introduced in which the cartridge was not bitten with the teeth but torn with the hand: the sepoys argued that they might very well forget and bite. Of historic significance was the fact that 100 years earlier, at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, Britain established its rule in India. Some began to spread the rumour of a prophecy that the Company's rule would end after a hundred years. Mutiny quickly spread and British garrisons were besieged. Towns and cities quickly fell into the hands of the Mutineers and British reaction to atrocities, such as Cawnpore, was equally brutal. The outbreak of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 found the 1st Battalion KRRC at Meerut, where they narrowly escaped a plot to massacre them while unarmed at church parade. The Jewel in the Crown of British rule in India was Delhi. Having fallen to the mutineers in a matter of hours, British pride was at stake and its recapture was of vital importance. The British attempt to recapture Delhi was at first but eventually two columns left Meerut and Simla. They proceeded slowly towards Delhi and fought, killed, and hanged numerous Indians along the way. Having driven the mutineers from the Meerut, the 1st Battalion KRRC marched under the command of Colonel `Jones the Avenger` to besiege Delhi.
On the ridge outside the town they formed a lasting alliance with the Sirmoor Goorhas and in the final assault on the Kashmir Gate they gave covering fire to the 2nd as they stormed the breach before themselves taking the Royal Palace after six days of street fighting. Seven VCs were won in the campaign in which the rear party at Meerut maintained the tradition for innovation by forming an elephant corps for pacification of the surrounding countryside.
After a march lasting two months, the British fought the main army of the rebels near Delhi in Badl-ke-Serai and drove them back to Delhi. The British established a base on the Delhi ridge to the north of the city and the siege began. The siege of Delhi lasted roughly from the 1st of July to the 31st of August. However the encirclement was hardly complete—the rebels could easily receive resources and reinforcements. Later the British were joined by the Punjab Movable Column of Sikh soldiers and elements of the Gurkha Brigade. Eagerly-awaited heavy siege guns did not guarantee an easy victory against the numerical superiority of the sepoy. Eventually the British broke through the Kashmiri gate and began a week of street fighting. At this time 43rd Light Infantry marched some 1300 miles in seven months, fighting innumerable small actions on the way, developing the concept of mounted infantry by the use of camels and winning its first VC. Meanwhile the 52nd Light Infantry set out from Bengal to, join the British force besieging Delhi, where they led the assault on the Kashmir Gate. Bugler Hawthorne won one of the regiment's two VCs for coolly sounding the advance under intense fire from the walls as the explosive charges to blow in the gate were detonated and then rescuing a wounded Engineer officer of the firing party. When the British reached the Red Fort, Bahadur Shah had already fled to Humayun's tomb. The British had retaken the city. If Delhi was the symbolic centre of the Indian Mutiny, and Cawnpore provided its most horrific episode, it was Lucknow that caught the imagination of the British public and became, perhaps, the most well known action of all Britain's 19th century wars. It had all the dramatic elements of a siege and even better, a happy ending. It became indeed a paradigm for later British colonial conflicts. There were the initial reverses, the spectacle of the 'thin red line' battling against overwhelming odds, heroism in the face of adversity, the stoicism of the ladies living in appalling conditions, the death of a gallant commander, finally the sound of bagpipes on the wind and a relief column marching into the British position with flags flying and kilted highlanders leading the way. It was said the news of the relief was sent in the shape of a Latin sentence that when translated read, "I am in luck, now." Lucknow, on the banks of the River Gomti, was the capital of Oudh. The state, annexed the year before in a move, which caused great resentment amongst the Indians, was ready to rise and Lucknow itself was full of the hangers-on of the old regime who were eager to reverse their recent dispossession. Henry Lawrence who, with his brother John, had recently worked wonders in the Punjab governed it. Lawrence knew the dangers of the British position in Lucknow and when mutiny swept through Oudh not long after the events at Meerut, he was reasonably well prepared. He decided to make his stand inside the Residency compound and unlike Wheeler at Cawnpore he fortified it strongly. Into this 33 acre refuge Lawrence gathered the entire European community of Lucknow and a garrison of about 1,700 men. Half the defending force were sepoys who had remained loyal to the British. The only formed unit of British troops were the 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment, under the command of Colonel Inglis. Inside the Residency compound there were nine separate buildings and a high mud-wall strengthened by earthworks formed the perimeter. Lawrence had prepared the position as much as possible. Trenches and gun pits had been dug, wire-entanglements laid out and booby traps set. Unfortunately, the Residency was almost in the centre of the city. On its eastern side stood the old palace of the kings of Oudh. To the north flowed the river. All round, however, were the narrow streets and lanes of the old city sometimes coming up to the very walls of the compound itself.
When the mutiny broke out in Lucknow toward the end of June, the sepoys did try to storm the walls but were always beaten back. Twice they breached the perimeter and British sallies to regain lost ground or eliminate strong points near the walls became necessary and commonplace. As at Cawnpore, the main problem was the constant barrage of artillery and musket fire that the mutineers were able to pour into the compound. One of the first shells killed Lawrence when it crashed into the billiard room in which he was staying. On being asked if he was hurt, he replied, "I am killed." He wasn't just then, but he died two days later. His death was a great blow to the British and a creeping fatalism began to spread through the Residency. Command passed to Colonel Inglis. A further misery was soon added to the sniping, the shelling and the direct assaults on the perimeter - the sepoys began tunnelling. Trying to undermine the walls, the charges the sepoys detonated sometimes exploded well inside the compound. The 32nd were forced to counter-mine and some of the fiercest battles of the siege were fought deep in the hot clammy earth with pistols, shovels and fists. Many of the Cornishmen were former tin miners, who were used to working underground. Their experience overcame resulted in the failure of the mutineers to enter the Garrison. Sorties were mounted by volunteers to destroy the threat of the guns, the most famous of which was by Captain Bernand McCabe.
Food started to run short, the casualties started to mount, rats swarmed everywhere and the July sun burned down on the now filthy, hungry and dispirited defenders. In the middle of August, a message reached Lucknow that told of a relief force beginning its march. Four days, the note promised, would see an end to their troubles. Welcome news indeed as the garrison had been reduced to 350 British soldiers and 300 loyal sepoys, with over 550 women, children, sick and wounded to look after. The four days came and went with no sign of any assistance. The days became weeks and still no-one came. Finally, 90 days after the siege began, gunfire was heard on the outskirts of the city. Two days later, on September 25th, a mob rather than an army burst into the residency. The lead troops were highlanders and in their furious push into the Residency they bayoneted a few loyal sepoys by mistake. The highlanders' uniforms were ragged and patched and their bearded faces were grimy with the smoke of powder. They were under the joint command of Sir Henry Havelock and Sir James Outram and had fought a gruelling campaign up from Cawnpore. Unfortunately, there were only a thousand of them and no sooner had the Residency gates closed behind them than the siege continued. Now at least the fear of the mutineers exploiting a breach in the wall had been considerably reduced, but the extra mouths to feed placed an almost intolerable burden on the already over-stretched commissary department. The bombardments and the mining continued and everything started to run out. Doctors had no more medicines to give the sick and wounded. The rations became smaller every day and it seemed as if Havelock and Outram's gallant march might have been in vain after all. Once again eyes and ears were strained for signs of relief. Throughout it all, the Union Jack, which flew from the Residency roof, was never taken down, as custom dictated it should each evening. Day and night it hung limply from the flagpole - a symbol of British defiance.
And then in October word came that another force was on the way. It was led by Sir Colin Campbell, a Crimean War veteran whose Highland Brigade had broken the Russian left flank at the Battle of the Alma and seen off their cavalry at Balaclava. A talented soldier of great courage, he was probably the only senior commander to have survived the Crimean war with his reputation intact. The arrival of the force was imminent. A tall Irish post office worker by the name of Henry Kavanagh came forward and volunteered to slip out of the Residency, make contact with the relief column and guide it back through the city. Kavanagh had gained a reputation for courage in the underground battles of the mines and counter mines and his offer was avidly accepted. Wearing Indian clothes and with his face blackened with oil, Kavanagh made his way past sepoy checkpoints, swam the River Gomti and found a British picket. Eight days later he returned and led Havelock and Outram through the streets to a meeting with their rescuer. When the three generals met, surrounded by the cheers of the soldiery, Havelock announced in a singularly unembellished sentence, "Soldiers, I am glad to see you."
The relief force, which included the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment (later to form part of the KSLI) made no attempt to enter the Residency for its numbers were small. Instead it pacified the city long enough for the inhabitants of the Residency to be withdrawn. On November 18th the withdrawal began with, of course, the women and children leaving first. The city was not completely quiet and much of the withdrawal was made under fire. When the non-combatants were safe, the garrison left. It was no proud march past and the soldiers broke step to disguise their leaving. Finally the rearguard slipped out and the Residency and city of Lucknow were given up to the mutineers. The British remembered to take down the Residency flag before they left. The whole force now made its way back to Cawnpore and safety. With their going the mutiny sputtered out into a sordid series of punitive hunts and guerilla engagements. Lucknow was retaken the following year and though sporadic fighting continued into 1859, with the relief of the Residency the mutiny was effectively over and it was only a matter of time before the British re-established themselves as rules of the north of India. In recognition of the gallantry of the 32nd at Lucknow, the following statement was issued from Buckingham Palace on 14th May 1858: “Her Majesty Queen Victoria, in consideration of the enduring gallantry displayed in the defence of Lucknow, has been pleased to direct the 32nd be clothed, equipped and trained as a Light Infantry regiment.” The Rifle Brigade were engaged at Cawnpore and the relief of Lucknow, as well as in many smaller actions, and earned four more VCs to add to its tally from the Crimea. A detachment marching to reinforce the Cawnpore force covered 49 miles in 26 hours and another 75 miles without rest after four months on a troop ship, so emulating their forebears at Talavera. In the fighting that followed the Riflemen captured two fourteen-pounder long guns and dragged them with ropes to their own lines - a distance of more than three miles.
After a short period in South Africa the 13th (Somerset) Light Infantry moved to India and, at the Relief of Azimghur, the Regiment won its first two VCs.
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