Timeline of the Indian Mutiny

Here is a rough timeline. I'll amend it, and add comments, as I go along:

Feb 25th, 1857. Incident (mutiny?) at Berhampore involving 19th Regiment Native Infantry.
March 29, 1857. Mangal Pandey mutinies.
April 8, 1857. Mangal Pandey hanged.
May 1857. Eighty five soldiers refuse cartridges in a parade.
May 9, 1857. The soldiers are sentenced to hard labor and fettered in front of the entire regiment.
May 10, 1857. The Meerut soldiers of the 3rd Light Cavalry revolt to rescue the eighty-five. Soon the entire cantonment of Meerut mutinied.
May 11, 1857. Mutineers arrive in Delhi.
May 19, 1857. Mutiny in Moradabad.
May 30, 1857. Mutiny in Lucknow. Quelled.
May 31, 1857. Mutiny in Bareilly.
May 31, 1857. Mutiny in Shahjehanpore.
June 3, 1857. Mutiny at Azimgarh.
June 4, 1857. Mutiny at Sitapur.
June 4, 1857. Mutiny at Benaras.
June 6, 1857. Nana Saheb controls Kanpur. Siege starts.
June 8, 1857. Mutiny at Faizabad.
June 28, 1857. Kanpur seige ends with the massacre of European population.
June 30, 1857. British troops, families withdraw into the Residency at Lucknow.
July 25, 1857. Revolt at Dinapore (Patna).
Sep 14, 1857. Storming of Kashmiri Gate by the British.
Sep 21, 1857. Bahadur Shah Zafar is taken prisoner. The Mughal Empire ends after 388 years.
December 10, 1857. Kanpur recaptured by the British.
January 8, 1858. Jung Bahadur’s Gurkhas join the British.
March 21, 1858. Lucknow is recaptured by the British.
April 2, 1858. Jhansi recaptured.
May 1, 1858. Death of Koer Singh, Rebel commander in Bihar.
May 7, 1858. Bareilly falls.
June 14, 1858. Rohilcund is in British hands.
June 27, 1858. Gwalior falls.
August 2, 1858. East India Bill given Royal Assent. East India Company rule ends.
August 8, 1858. Faizabad relieved.
October 5, 1858. Defeat of the rebels at Miranganj, Oudh.
October 7, 1858. Action at Sundeela, Oudh.
November 1, 1858. Royal Proclamation read all over India.
November 4, 1858. Battle at Rampore Kussiah.
November 9, 1858. Defeat of the rebels at Mehunde, Oudh.
November 11, 1858. Occupation of Amethi.
November 15, 1858. Occupation of Shankerpur. (Beni Mahdoo escapes.)
November 19, 1858. Occupation of Rai Bareilly.
November 24, 1858. Battle at Doun-de-khara.
November 7, 1862. Death of Bahadur Shah Zafar in Rangoon.

An earlier Indian Mutiny

Still reading G W Forrest, A History of the Indian Mutiny. Apparently, there was another mutiny in the Bengal Army in 1764 during the Battle of Buxar (faint memories of this from my school days). Here is how it was handled:

"Munro, who had hastened to the spot, ordered eight and twenty of the most culpable to be picked out and tried by a drum head general court marshall, when the whole were sentenced to death. The eight guns of the detachment being brought out, the first eight were fixed to their muzzles and blown away."

Very nice!

The rest were blown away in a similar fashion.

(Why did they mutiny? Apparently, according to Forrest, they wanted to join the other - Indian - side.)

The Sepoy Mutiny

"... Mrs. Christian, the wife of the commissioner, struggling to get on with her little child in her arms, a girl two-and-a-half years old, and her husband with her carrying a boy about six months old .... I took the child from her arms, and with the aid of Quartermaster-Sergeant Morton, of my regiment, got it away safe and sound; all three escaping unscathed through the fearful showers of bullets sent after us as we crossed the river, and hid ourselves in the friendly jungle. No sooner had Mr. Christian crossed the stream when a bullet struck him and he fell dead. The widow took the babe, and sat down by her husband's corpse. It was but a moment, and mother and child joined the father."

History of the Indian Mutiny by G W Forrest, volume 1, pp 205-206.

Full of pathos. One feels for the mother, despairing, giving up, sitting by her husband's corpse waiting for sure death. Still, I do wonder where the stories of the despairing Indians are? Those who, equally unceremoniously lost their loved ones during the sepoy mutiny?

BACSA

Another thing about the BACSA register on European Deaths and Burials in Burma. According to the edition I have (1983), "A remarkable amount of information on the cemetery has recently been supplied by Captain Kolu Ban, a retired Officer of the Burma Army Signals. He volunteered to undertake a full research and it is thanks to him that it has been possible to compile the list below of all the gravestones that could be identified." Very thoughtful of the Captain. But, I can't help wondering why he missed the Wingate grave. It had one of the largest headstones in the cemetery and the inscriptiopn quoted in my previous post was one of the clearest. It's not as if the cemetery is large, it isn't, nor is it the case that there are dozens of cemeteries littered all over the town, there aren't. How then did he miss this easy to find stone?

May I add, if the Burmese junta are listening, that the Maymyo cemetery is in deplorable condition. A path runs through the cemetery serving as a shortcut to the Lashio Road (the old "Burma Road"). Headstones are broken and carelessly scattered all over the place. Wild grass is growing everywhere. Like them or not, these cemeteries are a part of Burmese history. Shame on you!

The Raj: See How They Died

You have to feel sorry for some of these Raj rulers. Stuck in an unhealthy climate, harried by mosquitos that seemed to leave the locals alone, felled by cholera and other strange tropical diseases, they had to be tough. I've walked through so many Raj cemeteries in India and Burma and so many of them died young, quite sad in its own way. Here I am flipping through the Register of European Deaths and Burials for Burma. Published by BACSA, flipping through is quite instructive. A few random entries:

"Died in 1928 of illness from the delayed effects of an un-healed wound." (Maymyo). Un-healed wound?

"In loving memory of Edward, infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Moss of Shwegyin." (Maymyo). Poor baby. And, it certainly is odd that the Moss's identify themselves as being from Shwegyin.

"GLENDINNING The Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Ltd. Joined the Corporation in about 1881. Died of Cholera in 1882. Presumed buried in Prome." (Prome Cemetery) Didn't take long for the East to get him! And, apparently the poor man's body is still awol.

And, what about this poor guy:
"OREN The Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Ltd. Joined the corporation in about 1882/82. A Swede or Norwegian. Killed by dacoits. No further details." (Paungde cemetery) Nationality unknown, details of death unknown. Presumably there are Orens out there who have no idea that they have an ancestor who was killed by dacoits in far away Burma.

"Sacred to the memory of Captain John Swinton Browne, deeply regretted, who departed this life, aged 29 on the 5th of May 1834. ... said to have died of bilious fever." If that doesn't signify that the poor man's doctor had no clue what disease he was dealing with, nothing will.

"In loving memory of the infant son of Captain & Mrs F.L. Orman, 10th Gurkha Rifles, Born Maymyo 19th April 1908 died Maymyo 23rd April 1908." (Maymyo) The poor kid. I wouldn't want anyone to undergo childbirth in Burma today and one can only imagine the odds of survival in 1908.

Why, you might ask, this macabre passtime. I was looking for some information on half a headstone that I found in Maymyo (Pwin u Lwin) when I was there a few months ago. If I read this headstone correctly, a hefty chunk of the family of the Wingate's perished at around the same time and curiousity as to what killed them got the better of me. Unfortunately, this headstone is missing from the register.

.....also of John Bruce
Who died at Maymyo on the 16th July 1900
aged 10 months
Infant children of
John Bruce and Isabel Wingate

BACSA publishes registers recording known deaths and burials on the Indian Sub-Continent and in Burma.