The Indian Mutiny of 1857 (Military History from Primary Sources)
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rode out with a hundred armed troopers, found them, persuaded them to surrender, disarmed their numerous following, placed the arms on carts, the princes on a native akka (or gig), and led the long cavalcade in the direction of the Lahor gate. They had safely accomplished five-sixths of the journey
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halted the carts, made the three princes descend, stripped them, and shot them with his own hand.
Ahmed Husain
Assassination of the last Mughals: the two sons & a grand son of Bahadur Shah II
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For seven miles the road was one continued line of carts, guns, ammunition waggons, camels, and baggage of every description.
Ahmed Husain
Great number of people were involved
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the mutinied troops of the Jodhpur legion, fresh from a victory over the soldiers of the loyal Raja of Jaipur, invaded the territories he had but just overrun, and occupied Riwari.
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The rebels were well served by spies,
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Nor did the struggle cease so long as one man of the 2000 remained alive.
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Shah Najaf, upon whose solid walls not even the heaviest guns could make an impression.
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Numbering 25,000 men, of whom rather less than one-half were trained Sipahis,
Ahmed Husain
The men with Tantia
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The Nipal troops, to the number of 3000, had entered the Gorakhpur division at the very end of July, had disarmed the Sipahis stationed at Gorakhpur on the 1st of August, had occupied azamgarh on the 13th, Juanpur on the 15th of the same month.
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a further body of 9000 picked Gurkhas, to be commanded by Jang Bahadur in person,
Ahmed Husain
For the capture of Oudh
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The assaulting army, numbering 20,000 men and 180 guns,
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the famous Maulavi, one of the chief authors of the rebellion, was in Lakhnao, and the Maulavi had sworn that he would capture the convoy despatched with empty carts to Kanhpur, but now returning with the carts laden.
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It was computed, on the other hand, that the rebels had at their disposal no fewer than 120,000 men. Of these 27,550 were trained Sipahis, and 7100 trained cavalry soldiers. Of the remainder, 5400 were new levies, 5150 were Najibs, or men drilled and armed in the native fashion, 800 belonged to the camel corps they had organised, whilst the armed followers of the talukdars numbered 20,000. Such was the force which guarded the city
Ahmed Husain
Lucknow Oudh
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Canning's proclamation confiscating the entire proprietary right in the soil of Oudh, save in the case of six comparatively inferior chiefs.
Ahmed Husain
Confiscation of Rights
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the famous Maulavi was still in Lakhnao, and that from Shadatganj, in the heart of the city, he still bade defiance
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Ghazi's, men who devoted their lives for their religion, made a desperate onslaught on a village which the 4th Panjabis had but just entered. With the elan of their rush they swept the surprised Sikhs out of the village, and then dashed against the 42d,
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the Maulavi, who had evacuated Shahjahanpur on the approach of Sir Colin, had no sooner learnt that the British general was approaching Bareli, than he turned back from Muhamdi, and resolved to surprise Hale at Shahjahanpur.
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The Maulavi, who had eight guns, followed him to that place, invested it and from the 3d to the morning of the 11th of May kept up against it an all but incessant cannonade.
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the Maulavi was too strong in cavalry to permit of his being attacked with any chance of success.
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The Maulavi, meanwhile, occupied the open plain, whither rebels who had been elsewhere baffled flocked to him from all sides. Matters continued so till the morning of the 15th, when the Maulavi, whose following had greatly increased, attacked
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most dangerous and persistent enemy.
Ahmed Husain
Maulvi AhmadUllah of Faizabad
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the Maulavi realised that Sir Colin had put his troops in summer quarters than, with a small following, he attempted on the 5th of June to effect a forcible entrance into the town of Powain. The Raja, a supporter of the British, had refused him entry, and when the Maulavi, seated on his elephant, pressed forward to force the gate, the Raja's brother seized a gun and shot him dead. Thus ignominiously, by the hands of one of his own countrymen, terminated the life of one of the principal fomentors of the Mutiny, and its ablest and most persistent supporter.
Ahmed Husain
June 5th, 1858
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the Maulavi realised that Sir Colin had put his troops in summer quarters than, with a small following, he attempted on the 5th of June to effect a forcible entrance into the town of Powain. The Raja, a supporter of the British, had refused him entry, and when the Maulavi, seated on his elephant, pressed forward to force the gate, the Raja's brother seized a gun and shot him dead. Thus ignominiously, by the hands of one of his own countrymen, terminated the life of one of the principal fomentors of the Mutiny, and its ablest and most persistent supporter.
Ahmed Husain
the end of Maulvi Ahmad-Ullah fo Faizabad
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Kunwar Singh with 13,000 men.
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Aurangabad the 23d of June, disarmed there a cavalry regiment of the Haidarabad contingent which had mutinied,
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Jhansi was the objective point of the campaign—the seat of the rebellion—the stronghold of one of the authors of the Mutiny—
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The strength of the fortress struck him as remarkable. Standing on an elevated rock, built of massive masonry, with guns peeping from every elevation, it commanded the country far and near. The city, from the centre of three sides of which the rock rises, the rock forming the fourth side, sheer and unassailable, was four and a half miles in circumference. It was surrounded by a massive wall, from six to eight feet thick, varying in height from eighteen to thirty feet, having numerous flanking bastions armed as batteries, and was garrisoned by 11,000 men, commanded by a woman who possessed all ...more
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Women and children were seen assisting in the repair of the havoc made in the defences by the fire of the besiegers, and in carrying food and water to the soldiers on duty.
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22,000 men
Ahmed Husain
The army of 22000 men led by Tantia
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Rani took advantage of the darkness and disorder to ride with a small following for Kalpi, where she arrived safely.
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The rebels' loss he put down roughly at 5000.
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Kirwi, the Rao of which, an irresponsible minor, a ward of the British, was charged with having rebelled.
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The little Rao, who had no idea of rebellion, displayed his confidence in his overlord by riding out to Whitlock's camp to welcome him. Whitlock then occupied Kirwi without the semblance of opposition, and declared all the enormous treasures it contained to be spoils of the victors.
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Tantia Topi and the Rani of Jhansi, re-collecting their scattered followers, had marched on Morar;
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the famous Rani of Jhansi was killed, fighting boldly to the last.
Ahmed Husain
June 18th
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One consequence of it was the capture of the city of Gwaliar the same evening.
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about 12,000 strong, posted at the village of Jaura-Alipur.
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restoration of Sindhia,
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the chances of escape for Tantia were small indeed. Yet so extraordinary was the vitality of this remarkable man that for more than nine months he kept all the troops I have mentioned, and many others, in a state of perpetual movement against him.
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Man Singh, Raja of Narwar, had rebelled against Sindhia,
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met by the rebel chief Man Singh, and another famous rebel, Prince Firsuzhah,
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took refuge with Man Singh in the Paron jungles.
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persuade Man Singh to make his submission. Man Singh not only submitted, but was induced by hopes of personal advantage to betray the hiding-place of his old comrade.
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7th of April, Tantia was surprised there as he slept, taken into Sipri, brought to...
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and sentenced to be hanged. The sentence was carried out on...
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Tantia Topi was a marvellous guerilla warrior. In pursuit of him, Brigadier Parke had marched, consecutively, 240 miles in nine days; Brigadier Somerset, 230 in nine days, and, again, seventy miles in forty-eight hours; Colonel Holmes, through a sandy desert, fifty-four miles in little over twenty-four hours; Brigadier Honner, 145 miles in four days. Yet he slipped through them all—through enemies watching every is...
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IN Haidarabad, throughout the Mutiny, the loyalty of the Nizam and of his able minister, Salar Jung, had been the surest guarantees of peace.
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foreign troops in the service of the Nizam had caused an attack upon the Residency.
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the Raja of Shorapur, a Hindu tributary of the Nizam, broke out
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Sikhs in steamers up the Ganges to clear the banks of that river.
Ahmed Husain
Throughout the period Sikhs remained traitor of the Land & loyal to English