What was the Indian Rebellion of 1857 ?

The British had a tense confrontation with the soldiers before standing down.

The British had a tense confrontation with the soldiers before standing down.

On March 29, 1857 at the Barrackpore (now Barrackpur) parade ground, near Calcutta (now Kolkata), 29-year-old Mangal Pandey of the 34th BNI rebelled against his commanders.

When his adjutant Lt. Baugh came out to investigate the unrest, Pandey opened fire, hitting his horse.

General John Hearsey ordered a Jemadar Ishwari Prasad to arrest Mangal Pandey, but the Jemadar refused.

The whole regiment, with the single exception of a soldier called Shaikh Paltu, drew back from restraining or arresting Mangal Pandey.

Shaikh Paltu restrained Pandey from continuing his attack.

Mangal Pandey, after failing to incite his comrades into an open and active rebellion, tried to take his own life by placing his musket to his chest, and pulling the trigger with his toe.

Shaikh Paltu received promotion to the rank of Jemadar in the Bengal Army

Fires broke out in Agra, Allahabad and Ambala in April. At Ambala General Anson, Commander-in-Chief of the Bengal Army, judged that a riot over the cartridges loomed.

He allowed the soldiers to tear the cartridges with their fingers rather than their teeth. Rather than remain at Ambala, Anson then departed for Simla, the cool "hill station" where many high officials spent the summer.

Later in April, arsons set on fire barracks and European officers' bungalows.

Another large military cantonment sat in Meerut, stationing 2,357 Indian sepoys and 2,038 British troops with 12 British-manned guns.

On April 24, the commanding officer of the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry ordered 90 of his men to parade and perform firing drills.

All but five of the men on parade refused to accept their cartridges. On May 9, the British military court martialled the remaining 85 men, most receiving ten-year prison sentences with hard labor. Eleven younger soldiers received five years' imprisonment.

The entire garrison stood in formation to witness the condemned men stripped of their uniforms and placed in shackles.

As they marched off to jail, the condemned soldiers berated their comrades for failing to support them.

The next day, Sunday, Indian soldiers warned British officers of plans to release the imprisoned soldiers by force, but they took no action.

In Meerut, protests erupted in the bazaar, with some buildings set on fire. In the evening, the Indian troops, led by the 3rd Cavalry, broke into revolt.

They killed British junior officers who attempted to quell the first outbreaks, attacking British officers' and civilians' quarters.

Four civilian men, eight women and eight children died in the riot. Crowds in the bazaar attacked the off-duty soldiers there.

The sepoys freed their 85 imprisoned comrades from the jail, along with 800 other prisoners (debtors and criminals).

Some sepoys (especially from the 11th Bengal Native Infantry) escorted British officers and women and children to safety before joining the revolt.

Some officers and their families escaped to Rampur, where they found refuge with the Nawab. Sepoys killed about 50 Indian civilians, some officers' servants who tried to defend or conceal their employers

Major General Hewitt, the commander of the division (nearly 70 years old and in poor health), reacted slowly. British troops and two European-manned batteries of the Bengal Artillery rallied, but received no orders to engage the rebellious sepoys.