Siege of Fatehgarh
The Siege of Fatehgarh is an event during the Indian Uprising of 1857 . While the siege of Kanpur and Lucknow are the " great victim dramas " of the uprising from the British point of view , the siege of Fatehgarh is one of the lesser-known events of the uprising. In British historiographies, this siege is mostly mentioned because some of the refugees were locked up together with the surviving women and children of the massacre on the banks of the Ganges in Kanpur in Bibighar and murdered on July 16, 1857.
Starting position
The Fatehgarh garrison , now a small town in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh , is located on the Grand Trunk Road about 60 miles above Kanpur on the right bank of the Ganges . Compared to Kanpur and Lucknow, Fatehgarh was a rather insignificant garrison town. The garrison commander in chief was 60-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Acklom Smith, who was involved in military conflicts 38 years before the outbreak of the Indian uprising. His 51-year-old deputy, Captain Robert Munroe, had served in India for 30 years but had never seen battle before. By chance, at the time of the uprising, Colonel Andrew Goldie and Captain Edmund Vibart, two experienced officers, were in the garrison.
The Fatehgarh garrison was particularly vulnerable to insurrection. While there was one British soldier for every six Indian soldiers in Merath and the ratio was one to fourteen in Kanpur, no British troops were stationed in Fatehgarh. The crew consisted entirely of Indians, led by a few British officers. A number of Europeans and Eurasians lived in Fatehgarh and were instructed to hide in the fortress if there were signs of unrest. Lieutenant Colonel Smith was initially able to hold back the troops from fraternizing with insurgent troops. However, a number of civilians tried to get to Kanpur by boat along the Ganges as early as June 3. They were not aware at the time that Kanpur was similarly threatened by rioting and had been preparing for open riot for several weeks. The 157 civilians were murdered by insurgent forces under the orders of Nana Sahib just before they reached Kanpur. However, neither the officers in Fatehgarh nor in Kanpur learned of their fate.
The Siege of Fatehgarh
The open uprising in Fatehgarh took place in mid-June. The 10th Native Infantry stationed in Fatehgarh refused to kill their own British officers, but had signaled to other insurgent troops that they would not be ready to defend the Europeans if they were attacked. On June 18, the 41st Native Infantry rebels approached and the 10th Native Infantry released the prisoners in the garrison prison. Most of the Europeans and Eurasians withdrew to the fortress. However, some did not manage to escape. Most of them were murdered. A few people managed to escape to Agra . The fortress in Fatehgarh was actually more suitable than the one that had been defended against the insurgents in Kanpur. The fort was twice as large as the area that was defended under the direction of Hugh Wheeler in Kanpur, had solid walls, an adequate water supply, a vegetable garden, several well-protected barracks , guard houses and a field kitchen. However, the number of defenders in Fatehpur was only a tenth of those who defended themselves against the insurgent troops in Kanpur. In the end, Lieutenant Colonel Smith had only 32 European men and a loyal Indian servant available to defend himself against 2,000 insurgents. At the beginning of July 1857 the besieged decided to flee to Kanpur by boat. You were very likely aware at the time that the garrison in Kanpur was also under siege. They did not know, however, that the besieged had surrendered on June 23 and that most of them had been murdered on June 25 on the banks of the Ganges. They were also unaware that the besieged Kanpur had holed up in part of the garrison rather than in the magazine. The magazine, located directly on the banks of the Ganges, would very likely have been accessible for boat refugees.
Those fleeing in boats were intercepted by Nana Sahib's troops shortly before Kanpur. The women and children were locked up in Bibighar. Except for Colonel Smith, British officer Thornhill - son of one of the directors of the British East India Company - and Lieutenant Colonel Smith, all of the men were executed shortly after their capture. The three survivors were arrested and executed on July 16, just before Sir Henry Havelock and his troops were able to retake Kanpur. The women and children were victims of the massacre in Bibighar .
Individual evidence
- ^ Ward, p. 243
- ^ Ward, p. 207
- ^ Wilson, p. 209
- ↑ Ward, pp 214-227
- ^ Ward, p. 356
- ^ Ward, p. 358
- ^ Ward, p. 362
literature
- Andrew Ward: Our bones are scattered - The cawnpore massacres and the indian mutiny of 1857 , John Murray Publishers, London 2004, ISBN 0-7195-6410-7