Massacre at Cawnpore Read online

  On 4th June, he wrote to inform Sir Henry Lawrence that all non-combatant civilians had been ordered into the entrenchments, adding: “Trust in any of the native troops is now out of the question … it is said that the 1st Native Infantry is sworn to join (the mutiny) and they speak of its going off this night or the next morning … doing all the mischief in their power first, this is to include an attack on our positions… .” The rest of his letter was a bitter expression of resentment at the news that General Sir Patrick Grant, commander-in-chief of the Madras Army, had been chosen to succeed General Anson, in preference to himself. He was fifteen years senior to Grant, so that his resentment was understandable when he wrote: “I can but serve under him but it is a poor return for above fifty-two years of zealous service to be thus superceded. My name with the Native Army has alone preserved tranquillity thus up to the present time and the difficulties that I have had to contend with can only be known to myself … I have performed subaltern duty in going the round at midnight because I felt that I gave confidence … I write with a crushed spirit, for I had no right to expect this treatment… .” The letter ended with the alarming admission that “We can offer protection to nothing with our entrenchments… .”

  Despite his final statement, the old general made no attempt to blow up the Magazine and when, as predicted, the four native regiments rose at dawn on 5th June, the Nana’s bodyguard permitted them to possess themselves of the £100,000 contents of the Treasury and of the arms stored in the Magazine. The mutineers—almost certainly because of the high esteem in which their commander was held—offered no violence to their officers, and eighty men of the 56th Native Infantry entered the entrenchment to pledge their loyalty to the old “Sepoy General.”

  The rest, after a brief orgy of arson and looting, prepared to march on Delhi, 268 miles to the north-west, dragging their treasure and their looted guns behind them. They had travelled as far as Kalianpore, six miles outside Cawnpore, when the Nana Sahib revealed himself in his true colours. Invited by the native officers to become their leader, the Maharajah gave them a qualified assent and, in callous betrayal of the trust General Wheeler had reposed in him, he rode after the mutineers to persuade them to return to Cawnpore… .

  GLOSSARY OF INDIAN TERMS

  Ayah: Nurse or maid servant

  Babu: Clerk: loosely applied to those able to write

  Bazaar: Market

  Bearer: Personal, usually head, servant

  Bhisti: Water carrier

  Brahmin: High-caste Hindu

  Cantonments: European quarters, residences, civil or military, usually military.

  Chapatti: Unleavened bread of wheat flour

  Chapkan: Knee-length tunic

  Charpoy: String bed

  Daffadar: Sergeant, Cavalry

  Dhal: Lentil flour

  Din: Faith, Moslem war cry “For the Faith!”

  Doolie: Curtained litter for wounded

  Eurasian: Half-caste, usually children of British fathers and Indian mothers.

  Fakir/Sadhu: Itinerant holy man, Hindu

  Feringhi: Foreigner, term of disrespect

  Ghat: Landing place, river bank, quay

  Godown: Storeroom, warehouse

  Golandaz: Gunner, native

  Gram: Coarse grain, usually fed to horses

  Hanuman: Hindu monkey god

  Havildar: Sergeant, Infantry

  Jemadar: Native officer, all arms

  Khilluts: Gifts, rewards

  Khitmatgar: Table servant

  Lal-kote: British soldier

  Lines: Long rows of huts for accommodation of native troops.

  Maro: Kill

  Moulvi: Teacher of religion, Moslem

  Munshi: Teacher, usually of Hindustani to Europeans

  Nana: Lit. Grandfather, popular title bestowed on Mahratta chief.

  Oudh: Kingdom of, recently annexed by East India Company

  Paltan: Regiment

  Pandy: Name for mutineers, taken from the first to revolt, Sepoy Mangal Pandy, 34th Native Infantry

  Peishwa: Ruler or king of the Mahratta race

  Poorbeah: From the East, an inhabitant of Oudh

  Pucca/Pukah/Pukka: In this context, means brick-built.

  Punkah: Ceiling fan, usually pulled from outside by coolie.

  Raj: Rule

  Rissala: Cavalry

  Rissaldar/Rissaldar-Major: Native Officer, Cavalry

  Ryot: Peasant small-holder

  Sepoy: Infantry soldier

  Soor ka bacha/batcha: Son of a pig.

  Sowar: Cavalry trooper

  Subadar/Subadar-Major: Native Officer, Infantry

  Sweeper: Low-caste servant

  Tulwar: Sword or sabre

  Vakeel: Agent

  Zamindar: Landowner

  NEW! The Royal Marines Saga

  By the author of the Alexander Kent/Richard Bolitho Novels

  Travel through Britain’s military history, from the bright morning of Victoria’s Empire to its late afternoon in the Sicilian campaign of World War II with the proud tradition of a seafaring family called the Blackwoods, and the service in which successive generations make their career— the Royal Marines.

  This is an era of Empire and an age of change, where tradition meshes with new technology to shape the destiny of men and nations. The Age of Sail gives way to the power of steam, and battleground muskets yield to sharpshooting rifles.

  Reeman presents a vivid saga spanning a century and a half in the life of a great family in this four-book series.

  “Masterly storytelling of battles and war.”

  —Sunday Times of London

  “If any author deserved to be ‘piped’ into bookshops with full naval honours it is Douglas Reeman, without question master of both genres of naval fiction—historical and modern.”

  —Books Magazine

  Badge of Glory

  Royal Marines Saga #1

  ISBN 1-59013-013-8

  5.25” x 8.25” • 384 pp.

  $16.95 paperback

  First to Land

  Royal Marines Saga #2

  ISBN 1-59013-014-6

  5.25” x 8.25” • 304 pp.

  $15.95 paperback

  Available at your favorite bookstore, or call toll-free:

  1-888-BOOKS-11 (1-888-266-5711).

  To order on the web visit www.mcbooks.com

  and read an excerpt.