The population of Oudh and Rohilkhand rose en masse, and with the soldiery occupied Sir Colin Campbell through two campaigns. The nawab of Bareilly and the begum of Oudli joined the mutineers. The crisis here Was prolonged. But the centres of the conflict were at Dehli, Cawn pur, and Lucknow. The Cawnpur troops mutinied on the 6th June, and Dandhu Punt, the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao, styled Nana Rao and Nana Sahib, was proclaimed Peshwa of the Mahrattas. The Europeans, trusting a safe con duct from Dandhu Punt as far as Allahabad, evacuated Cawnpur, but all but a single boat's crew were destroyed ; and on the 15th July, when General Havelock's army was near, 125 women and children were cruelly massacred.
The siege of Dehli began on the 8th June 1857. The rebels were 30,000 strong, and the British army never exceeded 8000 men. On the 14th September the assault was delivered. A little party of 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, a corporal, a bugler, 14 native and 10 Panjab sappers and miners, in broad daylight, under a shower of bullets from every loop-hole and from the wicket-gate in front of them, went forward with powder bags to blow up the Kashmir gate. Their destruction seemed certain, but with the loss of two, who were killed, and four wounded, one mortally, they accomplished their object, which is one of the noblest deeds on record in military history. Dehli was then entered in four columns of assault, but not until five days were the whole of the defences taken.
From the 14th to the 17th of September, the church, the cutcherry, the college, the kotwalli, the magazine, and the Dehli Bank house were one after the other carried and recovered. On the 18th the line of communication between the magazine and the Kabul gate was completed. On the 19th the Burn bastion, near the Lahore gate, was taken possession of by a surprise.
The old king of Dehli, Suraj-ud-Din Ilyder Shah, Gbazi, and two of his sons, were captured, and the two latter shot by Captain Hodson of the Bengal army ; while the king, who on the 11th May 1857 had proclaimed himself emperor of India, was sent prisoner to Rangoon, where he died in 1862. The mutineers who fled from Dehli moved upon Agra in a formidable mass, followed by a flying column under Colonel Greathed, who defeated a body of them at Bulundshahr, destroyed the fort of Malagarlm, and scattered a body at Aligarh. Finally, Lucknow was relieved, and its garrison strength ened by Sir James Outram and General Havelock, until, in the month of March 1858, Sir Colin Campbell advanced on that city, after severe fighting, and made himself master of the south eastern suburbs, inflicting great loss on tho mutineers, 2000 of them having fallen at the fight at the walled garden called time Sekundar Bagh.
On the 2d July, Sir Henry Lawrence, Commis sioner of Oudh, had occupied the Residency at Luckuow, and two days later he was mortally wounded by a shell. The garrison was relieved on the 25th September by Havelock and Outram, but it was re-invested by fresh swarms of rebels, till Sir Colin Campbell (Lord Clyde) withdrew the garrison, 16th November 1857, and Lucknow was again re-occupied in March 1858.
Sir Hugh Rose (Lord Strathnairn), with an army from Bombay, fought his way from the Southern Mahratta country to Central India. Among his opponents were the raid of Jhansi and Tantia Topi ; the former died fighting at the head of her troops in June 1858.
When the rebellion in Central India was ex tinguished, when Saugor was relieved, and Rat garh as well as Shahgarh captured, and when Chanderee, Kalpee, and Jhansi had fallen, and Gwalior re-occupied by its chief, the maharaja Sindia restored to his capital, and with the final relief of Lucknow, the mutiny may be said to have been extinguished. On the 30th November 1858 the last body of rebels surrendered or passed the Nepal frontier. The last who made a stand was Dandlm Punt, Nana Rao. He was surprised and attacked in the vicinity of Bankee, and was driven through a jungle, which he tried to defend, and finally into and across the Rapti, from which date he has not been heard of.
The Indian Mutiny is one of the greatest dramas in the history of the world. Rome in all her might never contended with a greater peril, nor was ever arrayed against a mightier host. The successful manner in which the British met and sustained it will ever be quoted to the renown and glory of the military successes of Great Britain. The contest for supremacy was severe and long continued.
In May 1857 there were in India 45,000 European soldiers, 244,000 native soldiers, and 80,000 semi-military police.
About 250,000 native soldiery were arrayed against the British power in 1857. Of the British forces were 45,000 Europeans, and about 60,000 reliable native soldiery. These last were, before the end of 1857, increased to about 150,000 native soldiers, by the addition of the Sikh army from the Panjab, and before July 1858 there were over 80,000 British soldiers in India. After that revolt the native army began to be reduced, and by November 1866 it fell to 135,000 men, with only 12 guns, against 150 in 1857.
Claims were advanced by the European soldiers of the E. I. Company's army on the 2d May 1859, which resulted in about 10,000 soldiers taking their discharge. They had been enlisted to serve the E. I. Company, and when, in 1858, India was attached to the British sovereign, they claimed that the agreement was annulled, and this view was admitted to be Herald, .1825.