[Gutenberg 53093] • The Defence of Lucknow / A Diary Recording the Daily Events during the Siege of the European Residency, from 31st May to 25th September, 1857

The Defence of Lucknow is a memoir of the dramatic events of 1857, when the native sepoy troops of the Bengal army dramatically rose up against their colonial masters. The ensuing insurrection was to become the bloodiest in the history of the British Empire, with several thousand killed on both sides. With only 1,700 men, including loyal sepoys, the British fought off many ferocious attacks. The author describes the rebels’ desperate attempts to breach the walls, as well as their extensive use of tunnels. After ninety days, with the British reduced to just 600 soldiers, relief finally arrived. The response to the mutiny was fearsome. Reinforced by Gurkhas from Nepal and the Queen’s regiments fresh from the Crimea War, the British began a bloody campaign to re-establish their rule in India. Whole villages were hanged for real or imagined sympathy for the mutineers. Later, convicted mutineers were lashed to the muzzles of cannon and had a roundshot fired through their body. It was cruel punishment known by the Indians as ‘the devil’s wind’.