WHEN the Sikh Sepoys delivered the Allahabad fort into the hands of the English, instead of into the hands of the Revolutionaries, the English made it a base of operations on their side. There was now no longer the danger of having to carry on all civil and military operations in the North India from a distant centre like Calcutta. Lond Canning decided to shift the capital itself to Allahabad until the Revolution was suppressed and, accordingly, he came in a few days to reside at Allahabad. But, in the meanwhile, came the news of the miserable plight of the English at Cawnpore and their piteous cries for help. General Neill, therefore, kept a small army for protection at Allahabad and sent the rest under Major Renaud to raise the siege of Cawnpore. This deatchment marched on burning villages indiscriminately, on their way. Just then, Havelock was appointed to the command of the Cawnpore army in place of Neill. He arrived at Allahabad towards the end of June. He was a trained and an experienced officer. Fortunately for the English, the war with Persia came to an end about the time when the revolution actually broke out, and the whole English army, under good commanders like Havelock, arrived in India just at the time when they were very badly wanted. Though Neill was extremely chagrined to find that Havelock superseded him as the chief officer at Allahabad and that he had to be under him, he did not allow his private feelings to come in the way of the welfare of his country’s rule in India. He made vigorous efforts towards the equipment of the army. He gave every help to the army which was to be commanded by Havelock, made all arrangements as to the commissiariat, and quietly handed over the charge of the troops to Havelock when the latter officer arrived. This army was now fully prepared to go to the assistance of the English at Cawnpore. Havelock was eager to start, when suddenly news came that Sir Hugh Wheeler was defeated and had surrendered and that all the Englishmen, including him, had been massacred on the banks of the Ganges!
Havelock determined to revenge their death and set out in haste from Allahabad towards Cawnpore. He had with him one thousand select English infantry, one hundred and fifty Sikhs, a picked detachment of English cavalry, and six guns, all desperate with rage. There were, also, several civil and military officers going along with them, officers whose life had been saved consciously and deliberately by the revolted Sepoys and the people, out of mercy, or who had escaped their vigilance, and who now came to give information about the geography of the country to the new officers and men, to fight along with them and to wreak a terrible vengeance. And these brave Englishmen, whom one word of a Sepoy would have despatched from this earth, who would have been dead by now but for their mercy, now came together and started the campaign of burning villages wholesale.
When the news came to Cawnpore that a detachment under Major Renaud was marching towards Fattehgurh, Nana Sahib sent some troops in that quarter. Hoping to crush the small detachment in a short time, this army under Jwala Prasad and Tikka Singh reached Fattehgurh. But, by that time, Havelock’s army had joined Major Renaud and the united English army fired their guns as soon as they heard that the Revolutionaries had come. When the small Revolutionary force rushed into the field, confident of crushing Major Renaud in no time, it found arrayed against it the whole army of Havelock, together with artillery and all necessaries. This was on the 12th of July. They were, thus, completely taken by surprise. The fight began and they had to retire from the field leaving their guns behind them. Pursuit was impossible and the English army gave up the idea and entered the town of Fattehpur. At the time of the rising in Fattehpur, the leadership of the Revolution had been taken up by a deputy magistrate in the English employ, a Mahomedan named Hikmat Ullah. English officers had also been
killed there. The sword of English revenge now fell on that town. The former magistrate of the town, Sherer, who had been spared his life by the Revolutionaries and let off, now came with the army and was not eager to exercise his power of magistracy, so long in abeyance. So, a looting by the military was ordered, first of all. When it was certain that nothing more remained in the tow worth looting, the order was given to set fire to it; but the honour of this work was left to the Sikhs. So, when the Ednglis troops left, the Sikh troops performed their allotted task, set fire to the whole town and followed them.
When the English army burnt alive the whole town of Fattehpur, the fumes spread along and, at last, reached Cawnpore. The news reached Nana Sahib’s camp that the detachment which attacked Major Renaud’s force was suddenly set upon by Havelock’s army and that, after routing them. The English had entered the town and destroyed the whole city by first looting the place and then, burning alive the people in it. The whole of the Cawnpore Durgar was excided with rage and fury. Just when it was decided to send another army under Nana Sahib himself to obstruct the English march on Cawnpore at the Pandu river, it was announced that some traitors who had deserted to the English had just been arrested.5 At their trial it was proved that some of them had carried letters from the women prisoners at Gawnpore to the English at Allahabad. When the news spread
5 “After the defeat of Nana Sahib’s forces at Fattehpur, some reputed spies were brought to the
Nana Sahib. They were accused of being the bearers of letters supposed to have been written to
distant stations by the helpless women in prison. In the correspondence, some of the Mahajans
and Baboos of the city were believed to be complicated. It was, therefore, resolved that the said
spies together with the women and children, as also the few gentlemen whose lives had been
spared should all be put to death.” Narrative of the Revolt, page 113. One of the Christian
prisoners in the prison of Nana Sahib tells the same account and one of the Ayahs (nurses)
deposes to the same effect.
that those whom Nana had saved from massacre as “women” were maintaining secret, treacherous correspondence with the English at Allahabad, the important question arose as to what would be done to them. As the English burnt Fatehpur, why not avenge it by destroying this “Bibigarh” (Palace of Females) in return?
Though the prison was called Bibigarh, there were, also, some men in it saved by the intervention of Nana Sahib. After the unanimous resolution that these prisoners, along with the traitors who carried the correspondence, should all be killed, the dreadful meeting of the dreadful night adjourned. Next day, the spies and the Englishmen were dragged out of the prison and made to stand in a line. At first, the spies were decapitated with swords, in the presence of Nana Sahib himself; then, the Englishmen were shot. When Nana Sahib left the place, people came up to the corpses and mocked, “This is the Governor of Madsras; this of Bombay, and this of Bengal.”
When this grim mockery was going on here, the order was sent to the Sepoys at Bibigarh to kill all the inmates. When the warders would not dare to do it, it was resolved to bring someone of greater mettle as regards cruelty. The chief wardress of Bibigarh, Begum Sahib, sent a man to the butcher quarter of the Cawnpore city. In the evening, some butchers, brandishing naked swords and big knives in their hands, entered the prison gesticulating in rage. They entered about evening and came out when it was just beginning to be dark. But, in
that short space of time, there was a regular stream of red blood within the prison! As soon as they entered, they stabbed right and left and killed about one hundred and fifty English women and children! The room was a lake of blood with pieces of human flesh swimming in it. When they went in, the butchers walked on the ground; but when they came out, they had to wade through blood. The night was wailing with the screams of the half-dead, the deep groans of the dying, and the piteous cries of a few
children who escaped on account of their size in the general massacre. About dawn, the unfortunate creatures were dragged out of Bibigarh prison and pushed into a neighbouring well. A couple of children, so long crushed under the weight of the dead bodies, got out near the well and began running away. A blow threw them also dead on the heap of the dead. Men drank water so long from the well, but the well now drank human blood. As the English had thrown to the skies the screams of brown women and children at Fatehpur, so, the Pandays threw the screams and the corpses of white women and children into the deep down! The account between the two races, extending over a hundred years, was thus being settled!6 Even the Bay of Bengal might, in ages, be filled up; but the yawning well of Cawnpore – never!
About the same time, Havelock was pushing forward after defeating the army sent by Nana Sahib at Pandu nadi. Commander Bala Sahib Peshwa, brother of Nana Sahib, was hit by a bullet in the shoulder, in a skirmish, and returned to Cawnpore. Nana Sahib called together a council of war to settle the future plan of campaign. The question was discussed whether Cawnpore should be evacuated without fight or a strong resistance should be offered to the English advance; and, at last, after a long discussion, the latter alternative was decided upon. On the 10th July, the English army came near Cawnpore. The news of the Cawnpore well had not reached them. Though Wheeler’s fort was gone, they had a strong intention of rescuing Bibigarh. With this desire, they did not rest a moment in spite of fatigue, sun, and strife. When the turrets of Cawnpore came into view, Havelock was inspired all the more by these hopes. He sent reconnoitring parties to spy the army of the Pandays. That army was so splendidly
6 “The refinements of cruelty – the unutterable shame – with which, in some chronicles of the day, this hideous massacre was attended, were but fictions of an excited imagination, too readily believed without inquiry, and circulated without thought. None was mutilated, none were dishonoured……… This is stated, in the most unqualified manner, by the official functionaries, who made the most diligent enquiries into all the circumstances of the massacres in June and in July.” – Kaye and Malleson’s Indian Mutiny, Vol. II, page 281.
arranged on the field that the English warrior who had spent all his life on the battlefield perceived that there were some men, among the Revolutionaries, of extraordinary military skill. He called together his officers and drew out for them, with his sword, on the ground a map of his plan of attack. While Havelock was explaining to them that, instead of a front attack, the Revolutionary left wing should be attacked first, Nana Sahib, mounted on a white horse, joined the efficiently arranged troops of the Revolutionaries. From the English camp, the figure of Nana Sahib could be seen distinctly galloping into the different ranks and encouraging the soldiers. About noon, the English attack on Nana Sahib’s left wing commenced. To check this fierce, sudden the unexpected attack on the left, the Revolutionary artillery began fire. As the English artillery was a little late in arriving, these guns did very effective work. But when Havelock, irritated, by the success of the Revolutionaries, began to push forward again in desperate vigour and when the Highlanders, with turned eyes, ran straight to the guns and when the English, without going back an inch, rushed forth with the cry, “Death or Victory!”, then, the left wing became quite unable to resist the united, sudden and orderly attack and retreated, leaving their guns behind. While the left was retreating, the English artillery had defeated the right wing. Seeing the English army victorious, the Revolutionaries began the retreat along the road to Cawnpore. But, with the courage of despair, Nana Sahib rallied them and, with the rest of the guns, renewed the fight. At this time, Nana Sahib made marvellous efforts to encourage and lead the Sepoys “Such was the battle of Cawnpore. The Revolutionaries fought very well. Some of them did not retire even when sword clashed with sword. They saved their guns with determination and the firing was, also, splendidly airmed.“7 One more assault from the English side, and even this desperate resistance became in vain and the defeated Revolutionaries retreated towards Brahmavarta. On the 17th of July, Havelock’s victorious army entered the city of Cawnpore. Havelock and his army who had brought
7 Red Pamphlet.
up to Cawnpore the first wave of victory, to revive the lost English prestige were blessed by Englishmen, both in India as well as in England. Everywhere in England, in the street-corners, on sign-boards of shops, on the walls of public- houses, Havelock’s name was engraved!
When the permission to loot Cawnpore was given, hundreds of English officers and soldiers, along with the Sikhs, fell upon Cawnpore like vultures on a wounded lion. At Bibigarh, the spot was clotted with blood and there was a suspicion that it was English blood that had been split there. Therefore, a large number of Brahmins in Cawnpore were caught and those of them against whom there was any suspicion of complicity with the Revolution were sentenced to death. Not merely that, but, before being hanged, they were made to lick off, with their tongue, the blood spots and, then wash away the stains, broom in hand. The reason of giving this unheard-of punishment to those about to be hanged is thus given by an English officer : “I know that the act of touching Feringhi blood and washing it with a sweeper’s broom degrades a high caste Hindu from his religion. Not only this but I make them to do it because I know it. We could not wreak a true revenge, unless we trample all their religious instincts under foot, before we hang them, so that they may not have the satisfaction of dying as Hindus.” In the massacres ordered by the Revolutionaries, not only no religious injuries were inflicted on the English, but they were always given time, when they requested so, to read the Bible before they were killed. But the English clean took away, so far as they could, from the Revolutionaries who were massacred at Cawnpore and Delhi, all consolations of religion. But many gallant men, even in this misery, embraced death with a smile for the sake of their principle and made sacred the gallows on which they were hanged. Charles Ball says: “General Havelock began to wreak the terrible vengeance for the death of Sir Hugh Wheeler. Batch of natives mounted the scaffold. The calmness of mind and nobility of demeanour which some of the Revolutionaries showed at the time of death was such as would do credit to those who martyred themselves
for devotion to a principle. One of them, who worked as a magistrate at Cawnpore under Nana Sahib, was arrested and put on his trial. But, he seemed to indifferent to all the proceedings as if they all referred to someone else and not to him. After he was sentenced to death, he rose and turned his back to the judge and walked with a firm step to the scaffold erected for him; while the Maungs were making the final preparations, he was looking at their movements in an easy and natural manner. And without the least agitation, he mounted the scaffold even as a Yopgi enters Samadhi! Fortified by the assurances of his creed, death to him was but a transition from the hated association of the infidel Feringhis to the blissful enjoyment of paradise.“8 While the British army entered Cawnpore and was taking revenge ad libitum, Havelock praised the small army consisting of English and Sikhs for having fought bravely in an orderly, compact, and determined manner. Soon after this, General Neill also arrived at Cawnpore, having left a sufficient English garrison at Allahabad. When these two English officers of equal rank came together, each of them would have the desire of having all the troops under his control and there was a possibility of more disorder in the already disorderly English army. Seeing this, Havelock told Neill plainly on the latter’s arrival. “General Neill, it is better that we should understand each other clearly. So long as I am here, the whole commandis mine and you should not give any orders.” In order that English interests might not suffer through the personal jealolusy of the two officers, Neill remained to guard Cawnpore and Havelock marched towards Oudu at the head of the troops going for the relief of Lucknow. Neill hit upon a new plan for the defence of Cawnpore. He formed a corps of Mahars and gave the town in their charge. The trick of inciting these low class men against the higher claseds succeeded wonderfully. When the division among the
8 Charles Ball’s Indian Mutiny, Vol. I, page 388. .
Hindus and Moslems vanished, this caste difference was thus made use of! After the defeat of Cawnpore, Nana Sahib Peshwa left Brahmavarta and crossed the Ganges with his treasure and his army. His first camp was at Fattehgarh; the English army under Havelock, not being able to ascertain Nana’s whereabouts, marched towards Lucknow. By the end of June, the whole province of Oudh was a perfect beehive of the Revolutionaries, and it was not easy task to march through the province and to relieve Sir Henry Lawrence and raise the siege of Lucknow. Still, in the flush of victory, Havelock and his army thought lightly of the work of crossing the Ganges and relieving Lucknow. Just as the idea, “to see Delhi was to conquer Delhi”, possessed the English army which dedscended from the Panjab, so, the idea that it was only necessary to corss the Ganges in order to take Lucknow now haunted Havelock’s army going up from Cawnpore. It is true Lucknow is not very far from Cawnpore. It is also true that the energy and quickness which was displayed by Havelock on his march from Allahabad to Cawnpore inspited him to undertake stupendous tasks with a light heart. But now, there was not an inch of space in Oudh that was not involved in the flames of the national Revolution. Oudh being the cradle of the Purbhayya Sepoys who began the revolt in India, the parents, the children and relatives, and friends of these Sepoys, in every hamlet and every cottage, were inevitably burning with Revolutionary spirit. Still, this terriblestate of affairs did not daunt the English commander who was full of his victory. He was in such high spirits that he hoped to conquer Lucknow at the very sight thereof, then to march to Delhi and, after taking it, to go to Agra! With such confidence, Havelock, with two thousand English troops and ten guns, crossed the Ganges on the 25th of July. General Neill stayed at Cawnpore and Havelock marked towards Lucknow. Such was the disposition of the English troops at the end of July, 1857.