HE INDIAN MUTINY OF 1 857 . A SKETCH OF THE PRINCIPAL MILITARY EVEN S T . AP TAI F . R . E D C N S GWIC K . (Royal F ield A rtillery .) L ON D ON F O S T G OOM C O . L TD R E R R , , 1 5 C H AR I G R S S S .W . , N C O , 1 909 . PREFACE . Among the imme nse mass of literature dealing t 1 857 1 858 1 859 with the even s in India in , , and , there exists no brief general a ccount of the purely military events of the great struggle . This boo k c is a humble attempt to remedy the deficien y , and no one ca n be more aware than the author of its o a i t sh rtcomings . Nevertheless , in the hope th t ma y be of some use to those commencing a study ” of our t a of one grea est Small Wars , and th t it may possibly afford a certain assistance to those i to whose time is limited , and who yet w sh obtain a gene ral knowledge of the military problems presented to us by the political exigencies of our great oversea Empire , this little book is now pub i h d lli l s e . With regard to the spe ng of the names , I have endeavoured to employ that most generall y a old S of use d . I have however ret ined the pelling s C a wn - f or the name Lucknow , pore , Meerut , I L a khn a o K a hn ur M i ra th doubt if , p , , would be s generally recognized . For any mistake in the ma f or spe lling of names I trust I y be forgiven , the differences in the various authorities are considerable . F or the facts of the story I have relied on the on works of Kaye , Malleson , and Forrest , Lord ’ “ ” — n Y a on Robe rts Forty o e e rs in India , and certain Blue Books most kindly shown me at the Library of the India Office . ‘ . Exeter , F R Sedgwick 1 7 1 908 . Dec . , 1 4J ~O7 R 1 C ON T E N T S . Introduction . - I . 1 857 . Chap . India in Outbreak of Mutiny . — Chap II . The course of Mutiny . - Chap 0 III . The situation . — Chap IV . Sir Colin Campbell . — Chap V . Capture of Delhi . — Chap VI . The Siege of Lucknow . Havelock Outram enter Lucknow . — b Chap VII . Sir Colin Camp ell relieves Luck now . — Chap . VIII . Battles near Cawnpore . — Chap . IX . The Doab and Behar . Outram at ta Lucknow . Preparations to at ck Lucknow . - X . Chap . The Capture of Lucknow h — ’ C ap . XI . Sir Hugh Rose s Central India Cam a i n p g . — Chap . XII . The Final Operations . Some Lessons of the War . APPENDICES . Appendix I . Distribution of Troops in India at the out break of Mutiny . Appendix II Numbers of troops despatched from England showing month of arrival in Ind ia . Appendix III . List of Regiments despatched from every source to India during the whole course of the Mutiny . Appendix IV . Effect railways would have had on the course of the Mutiny . LIST OF MAPS . General Map of India . h Showing : R ailways existent in 1 857. T e Grand Trunk Road . The distribution of troops in May 1 857 . Inset : Map showing principal railways of India in 1 908 . Sketch Plan of Delhi . Sketch Plan of Lucknow . Sketch Plan of Cawnpore . Sketch of Theatre of War . INTRODUCTION — — of Gre at and Small Wars Sea Power The — Causes of Small Wars The Indi an Mutiny Unique . Before commencing a sketch of the military events which are collectively termed the Indian Mutiny , it will be well to briefly consider the s s how general nature of war of this clas , and the i Indian Mutiny was quite un que among them . e e o sse a Wars have b en divid d int two cla s , gre t s a war , th t is to say , wars between the trained e s forces of two gr at Powers , and mall wars , that is c , wars in whi h a Power has to deal with an enemy whose forces are not highly organized and e trained . It is singular how seldom it is r alized in England that our military forces have not taken part single handed in any grea t war since m the ti e of Henry V . British troops ha ve bee n engaged very often since that time in war with a great Power , yet hardly a single great engage ment has been fought by them in which they were other than a part of an allied army . In the Low ’ Countries , Marlborough s Armies were barely ’ half British ; in Spain , Wellington s troops were largely German and Portuguese ; the Army that ’ stood Napoleon s shock at Waterloo was less than e half British , and the coup de grac was dealt by an army of Prussians . l s When , however , the mi itary tudent turns from the consideration of Gre at Wars to that of e to Small Wars , it is int resting find that for more than a century and a half , there has never c s been a decade , and hardly a year , in which for e led by British officers have not been engaged in warfare , on the ever widening frontiers of our e Empire . The wars thus waged have b en of the e most varying typ s , and from them three stand — s out a s pre eminently great Sma ll Wars . The e three tried the resources of Britain to their utter on e the e r most , and in int rvention of a G eat s Power led to our ultimate defeat . The e three w R e ars are the American evolution , the Bo r War 1 899—1 902 of , and the Indian Mutiny . All these three wars called for a great trans orta ti on p of troops from the Mother country , therefore a consideration of the military events s of these campaign , brings us first to a considera tion of the importance a nd limitations of Se a Power . In the American R e volution our Armies (largely composed of German mercena ries) were unsucce ssf ul a nd the i nterve n generally , _ finally of tion France forced the British Court , whose was policy always disliked by the nation at large , to grant independence to its American Colonists. French intervention in the American R evolu tion was chiefly valuable to the Colonists , on a ccount of the naval strength of the French . wa s the t of nation Indeed , it naval s rength France as much as the American victories which t i brough the British Court to ts knee s. 8 Re ce nt revelations must have brought home to e n f or very man in the U ited Kingdom that , but our e Navy , foreign intervention in the Bo r War would certainly have occurred . During the Indian Mutiny there was no ques tion of foreign intervention , but it must not be f orgotten that , but for the Navy , the transport of troops would have soon bee n made most d l oult by any Power disposed to take advantage of our own . Colonial embarrassments , to further its ends Nor can it be supposed that in an Empire such as ours c , situations will not o cur again requiring a g reat transporta tion of troops from the Home Country . s to c ss The first es ential suc e , therefore , in a ” a a e gre t Sm ll War is S a Power . In that great work Small Wars their prin ci les a n d c e C a llwe ll p practi e , Colon l , after pointing out the great dissimilarity of such wars e ts t se from one another, s for h the general cau s which lead a Colonia l Power into small wars and the necessity of studying thei r origins in order to s under tand the military operations . He says It is the milita ry aspect of small wars which concern us , and not their origin and causes . And yet their spe cial peculiarities can c generally be tra ed back to their source . For , ma : broadly , they y be divided into three classe s a n C mpaigns of conquest and an exation , cam pa igns for the suppression of insurrection or s lawlessnes , and campaigns undertaken to wipe out s to e o an in ult , aveng a wrong , or t overthrow ” a dangerous enemy . It will be observed that the first and third of s am of these clas es , c paigns conquest, and cam pa igns underta ken to overthrow a dangerous a re c ss enemy or avenge a wrong , ne e arily external ss c ns wars . The other cla , ampaig for the sup pression of an insurrection are necessarily t s in ernal war . The History of Revolts is the Hi story of of Guerrilla War , tedious and invertebrate oper a ti cns of , often bloody ambushes and bloody ” ' s di i cult of the reprisals . They are the mo t all ope rations which re gular troops can be ca lled on a s to perform , they are almost as unpleasant , and o much disliked , as duties which lead the troops int contact with mobs , generally called Duties in ” Aid of the Civil Power .