Produced by Ted Garvin, jayam and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team
The ever memorable period in the history of our Eastern Empire known asthe Great Indian Rebellion or Mutiny of the Bengal army was an epochfraught with the most momentous consequences, and one which resulted incovering with undying fame those who bore part in its suppression. Thepassions aroused during the struggle, the fierce hate animating thebreasts of the combatants, the deadly incidents of the strife, whichwithout intermission lasted for nearly two years, and deluged with bloodthe plains and cities of Hindostan, have scarcely a parallel in history.On the one side religious fanaticism, when Hindoo and Mohammedan,restraining the bitter animosity of their rival creeds, united togetherin the attempt to drive out of their common country that race which forone hundred years had dominated and held the overlordship of the greaterportion of India. On the other side, a small band of Englishmen, afew thousand white men among millions of Asiatics, stood shoulder toshoulder, calm, fearless, determined, ready to brave the onslaught oftheir enemies, to maintain with undiminished lustre the proud deeds oftheir ancestors, and to a man resolved to conquer or to die.
Who can recount the numberless acts of heroism, the hairbreadth escapes,the anxious days and nights passed by our gallant countrymen, who, fewin number, and isolated from their comrades, stood at bay in differentparts of the land surrounded by hundreds of pitiless miscreants, tigersin human shape thirsting for their blood? And can pen describe thenameless horrors of the time—gently nurtured ladies outraged andslain before the eyes of their husbands, children and helpless infantsslaughtered—a very Golgotha of butchery, as all know who have read ofthe Well of Cawnpore?
The first months of the rebellion were a fight for dear life, a constantstruggle to avert entire annihilation, for to all who were there itseemed as though no power on earth could save them. But Providencewilled it otherwise, and after the full extent of the danger wasrealized, gloomy forebodings gave way to stern endeavours. Men arose,great in council and in the field, statesmen and warriors—Lawrence,Montgomery, Nicholson, Hodson, and many others. The crisis brought tothe front numbers of daring spirits, full of energy and resource, ofindomitable resolution and courage, men who from the beginning saw themagnitude of the task set before them, and with calm judgment faced theinevitable. These were they who saved our Indian Empire, and who, by thedirection of their great organized armies, brought those who but a fewyears before had been our mortal enemies to fight cheerfully on ourside, and, carrying to a successful termination the leaguer of Delhi,stemmed the tide of the rebellion, and broke the backbone of the Mutiny.
The interest excited amongst all classes of our countrymen by the eventswhich happened during the momentous crisis of 1857 in India can scarcelybe appreciated by the present generation. So many years have elapsedthat all those who held high commands or directed the councils of theGovernment have long since died, and the young participants in thecontest who survived its toils and dangers are all no