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Lieutenant Hugh Gough’s Eye-Witness Account
According to Hugh Gough who was a lieutenant in the 3rd BLC at Meerut, the CO, Lt-Col George Carmichael-Smyth, ordered a parade (date unknown) of the skirmishers of the regiment. Each Troop contained 15 skirmishers, men armed with a carbine as well as sword and pistols. There were 90 men in all and the CO had called them out to allay rumours that the cartridges were smeared with animal fat and to explain the new way of handling them. He intended to distribute a cartridge to each man for them to examine and fire it, but only 5 men accepted the item. The other 85 men refused to touch it even though they were the normal cartridges that they had been using all along. Carmichael-Smyth was duty-bound to report the matter to the General and army HQ. The General immediately ordered all 85 men to be court-martialled.
The men were confined to a building used as a hospital, and guarded by European men of the 60th Rifles. The court-martial was officiated by Indian officers; the only British officer was a Superintending Officer with legal experience. The men all pleaded not guilty and the CO, adjutant and havildar-major were witnesses giving evidence. The findings of the court were sent to the Commander-in-Chief, George Anson, and a reply sent back on 8 May. The defendants were paraded inside a square made up mostly of British troops with loaded weapons, but also the dismounted 3rd BLC and the 11th and 20th Native Infantry, with unloaded weapons. The verdicts and sentences were read out, but Gough does not make it clear who decided on the sentences. The older soldiers were sentenced to deportation or imprisonment for life while the rest had prison terms ranging from 20 to 10 years. They then had their boots removed and their ankles chained. As they moved off to a civil jail some of them threw their boots at the CO and cursed him.
For the most part the men were calm as they were taken away and showed no anger at their unfair treatment. Gough felt sorry for these skirmishers who he described as the ‘elite’ of the regiment. The Troop commanders went to the Jail to pay off the men.
‘Shall I ever forget the scene? It made the strongest impression on me, though I was but a thoughtless young subaltern. We found our men imprisoned in one large ward; at first they seemed sullen or impassive, until it entered their comprehensions that it was all a sad reality, that they were now being paid up and discharged from an honourable service, into which they had been born….Once they began to realise all they were losing, and the terrible future before them, they broke down completely. Old soldiers with many medals gained in desperately-fought battles for their English masters, wept bitterly, lamenting their sad fate, and imploring their officers to save them..’
That evening an Indian officer of Gough’s Troop came to see him and warned him that the men of the regiment and the Native Infantry would mutiny the next day. Gough went to Carmichael-Smyth and told him this but was rudely rebuffed as the idea of the men coming out in open revolt was inconceivable. The Brigadier was also informed but did not believe it. At 5pm the next day, Sunday, the Native Infantry were reported to be burning bungalows and murdering their officers. Gough was duty officer and rode towards the trouble. There he witnessed,
‘..a scene of the most wild and awful confusion: the huts on fire, the sepoys (in each regiment over a thousand strong) having seized their arms and ammunition, dancing and leaping frantically about, calling and yelling to each other, and blazing away into the air and in all directions — absolutely a maddened crowd of fiends and devils, all thirsting for the blood of their officers, and of Europeans generally.’
Gough rode back to the lines occupied by the 3rd BLC and found them also rioting and raiding the armoury to seize the ammunition that previously had been so abhorrent to them. At first Gough was left unharmed because of his popularity but there soon came shouts of “Kill him! Kill him!” and he was in fear of his life until rescued by QMS Cunninghame and several mounted troopers. They managed to get away because Gough felt that the men were not so determined to kill him as they could have been. But he and Cunninghame, accompanied by an Indian officer and two sowars, were not out of trouble. Their desperate gallop through the bazaar and along the roads was fraught with danger, ‘..one can hardly realise the very hell of fury and hatred through which we passed — men who had hitherto always salaamed to almost all Europeans now thirsting for our blood.’
Gough stresses that no officers of the regiment were killed by the men of the 3rd BLC. Captain Craigie and Lieutenant Alfred Mackenzie, with their families were guarded by their own men, and Gough himself is full of praise for the Indian officer that he doesn’t name: ‘A braver or more loyal man I have never met and whatever his faults may have subsequently been, in his mutiny against his salt and his military allegiance, all will allow his loyalty to me was beyond praise, and I can never forget him, or how he risked his life again and again to save mine.’ The fact that Lieutenant John Macnabb was killed at the start of the mutiny does not mean that he died at the hands of men of the regiment.
When Gough returned to his house he found it a smouldering ruin and everything destroyed. His servants had remained loyal and his ‘factotum’ Madar Bux, ‘one of the very best and most trustworthy native servants I have ever met’ has saved his full dress uniform, ‘a very costly and gorgeous costume of French-grey and silver, hussar pattern (but which from that moment was of no more use to me than as a fancy dress, as the uniform was subsequently discarded) neglecting, alas! to secure anything else that would have been precious and useful to me. I was thus left stranded with the summer uniform in which I had escaped, the full dress clothes he had saved, and nothing else in the wide world.’ But he goes on to say that most of his syces (Indian grooms) had saved most of his horses. One syce had absconded with a valuable black Arab that had been bought for racing purposes. He assumed it had gone to Delhi along with the rest of the regiment.
The mutineers of the 3rd BLC released all the prisoners in the civil jail where the unfortunate skirmishers had been detained. But the release of their comrades also meant the release of all the real criminals. In the anarchy that prevailed in Meerut the liberated robbers and murderers were free to attack anyone and help themselves to whatever. This caused mayhem along the well-used road between Meerut and Calcutta. The casualties amongst the British officers of the 3rd BLC were; Killed, Lieutenant John Macnabb, Veterinary Surgeon Parry (whose wife was burned alive) and Vet Surgeon Dawson. Surgeon-Major Christie was desperately wounded and invalided for life. These casualties were killed or wounded by men of the Native Infantry or civilians. The troopers of the 3rd BLC, with the exception of 40 or 50 men, went off to Delhi where they were instrumental in spreading the mutiny there and ‘proved themselves such incarnate fiends’. The CO, Carmichael-Smyth, ‘who was most unpopular’ managed to escape a strong party of men who were intent on wreaking vengeance on him. According to Alfred Mackenzie, the 40 or 50 men were persuaded to remain loyal because of the intervention of Captain Craigie who was fluent in their language.
Rescue of the Fugitives
Although Hugh Gough is vague about those men of the regiment that remained loyal, it seems that enough of the 40 or 50 men who did not go to Delhi were able to form a small force under the command of Lieutenants Gough and Mackenzie which rescued a large group of British survivors. On 19 May a report reached Meerut that these fugitives had been seen wandering about in the vicinity of Delhi. The expedition set off straightaway under difficult circumstances. They were ill-prepared and were shot at as they dashed through villages. They learned that the fugitives were holed up in a place called Hurchundpore, a fortified village. Fortunately the inhabitants were unsure about their support for the mutiny, and allowed the two British officers to enter to meet up with the fugitives. They made their way through the streets which were lined with suspicious villagers, and came to a serai, the main house of the village. This was owned by a ‘Zemindar’ a man of German origin called Cohen. To their amazement they found the fugitives there, ‘grouped in the centre of the enclosure…a large party of our fellow-countrymen and women, who hailed our advent with an intensity of joy and and relief which it is impossible to describe. There were between 25 and 30 of them, officers with their wives and daughters, tradesmen and others…For a whole week their lives had been scarcely safe for a moment, and now they were saved.’ In later years Gough met up with two of the Indian soldiers who had accompanied him on this rescue mission; Jemadar Bisseshur Singh and another man who had both been commissioned into the 14th Bengal Lancers.
Lieutenant John Macnabb’s Eye-Witness Account
John Macnabb was an 18 year-old, newly arrived officer at Meerut. He had disembarked at Calcutta in late 1856 and at first was posted to the 8th BLC at Lahore, then in Feb 1857 transferred to the 3rd BLC in Meerut. The letter transcribed here, was addressed to his mother, but it remained in his writing case for 38 years until it was found by his brother in February 1895. At the start of the letter Macnabb refers to a ‘mutiny’ but at the time of writing the mutiny proper had not got underway. He had witnessed the refusal of the 85 skirmishers of the regiment to handle the questionable cartridges which were rumoured to be unclean according to their Hindu and Moslem religions, and the infamous parade on 9th May where they were sentenced and manacled. The letter is dated 10th May, the day of the outbreak of the trouble, and of his tragic death.
MEERUT
May 10th 1857
My Dear Mother,
I began writing this letter early as I have a great deal to write about.
We have had a mutiny in this regiment, like several others, on the cartridge question. Of course you have heard in England that the 19th N.I. had refused to bite the greased cartridges, because they said they had pig’s fat in them. The 19th are disbanded. Some other regiments made a fuss about it, so an order was issued that the men were to tear the top of the cartridge off with their fingers, instead of their teeth. Our Colonel Smyth most injudiciously ordered a parade of the skirmishers of the regiment to show them the new way of tearing the cartridges. I say injudiciously because there was no necessity to have the parade at all or to make any fuss of the sort just now, no other Colonel of Cavalry thought of doing such a thing, as they knew at this unsettled time their men would refuse to be the first to fire these cartridges, but that by not asking they would not give their men the chance of refusing, and that next parade season when the row had blown over they would begin to fire as a matter of course, and think nothing of it. But Colonel Smyth orders a parade at once. The night before, Captn. Craigie, who knows everything that is going on in the regiment, wrote to the Adjutant to ask the Colonel to put this parade off as he had got information that the men would refuse to fire. The men themselves also humbly petitioned the Colonel to put the parade off till this disturbance in India had gone over, in fact pointing out to him what he ought to have seen himself. He was half inclined to indulge them, but sent for the Adjutant and asked him what he advised. Fancy a Colonel asking his Adjutant. He ought to be able to make his own mind up without another man’s assistance, if he is fit to command a regiment.
The Adjutant [Melville Clarke] who is always severe to the men, said it would look like being afraid of them, and said he had better abide by what he had ordered. He might have countermanded the parade without seeming to be afraid of the men and then if they took any improper advantage of it he might then have pulled them up sharp, but the great mistake was ordering the parade at all. Then he went on making more mistakes. At a skirmishers’ parade the Colonel is never present nor any other European officer, but on this occasion he goes down and addresses the men, tells them that they are to tear the cartridges with their fingers, instead of their teeth. The men instantly think “Why, these cannot be the cartridges we have fired all our lives, there must be something wrong that we are not to put them in our mouths,” so they refused to fire them as they did not want to be the first regiment who had fired, for then they would lose caste as the other natives would not believe that they were not greased cartridges. But the real case is that they hate Smyth, and if almost any other officer had gone down they would have fired them off, for Craigie told me that from what he knows of the men in his own Troop, and in the regiment, he would have guaranteed that they fired them five minutes after he had spoken to them. Craigie was told this by his men, by whom he is beloved, but he told it to me in confidence and I would not tell it to anyone out here, but I wish you to know the truth of the case.
The men of course had no real excuse for not doing what they were ordered, and they knew what these cartridges were made of, as they had fired them off privately in riding school since the 19th N.I. were disbanded, and they would have continued to do so if they had been left alone, instead of being paraded, and addressed, and all that humbug. Another mistake was that, instead of serving out the cartridges the night before as usual, they were not given them until they got on parade, which of course made them doubt if they were the old ones.
They of course were ordered to remain in their lines. A day or two after, these 85 skirmishers were marched into an empty hospital, and there confined. They were then tried by Court Martial and sentenced to 10 years on the roads in chains! They could not have hit upon a more severe punishment as it is much worse to them than death. It is in fact 10 years of living death. They will never see their wives and families, they are degraded, and one poor old man who has been 40 years in the regiment, and would not get his pension, is now thrown back the whole of his service.
But though I am very sorry for the men individually, for there were some splendid fellows among them, and good soldiers, yet I am glad that this has come to a head, and now I think there will be no more refusing to bite cartridges, and it will be a good lesson to the whole Army, but it is a great pity that it has happened in my regiment, “The old and steady 3rd”, and brought on us in such a useless manner. It is the first disgrace the regiment has ever had. The sentence was carried out yesterday morning. We were paraded at 4 o’clock on foot, and marched up to the grand Parade ground where all the troops in the station were assembled. The prisoners were escorted by a company of Rifles, and some of the 6th Dragoon Guards. It is lucky that this happened in Meerut where there are so many European troops, for if it had been at a small station I would not have given much for the officers’ lives. But here there are Cavalry, Infantry and Artillery, all English who would cut them up in no time.
We reached the parade at 5, and there we stood for 2 hours and more, while the sentence was being read, and the irons put on. Didn’t my long back ache neither! {Macnabb was very tall] It was luckily a cloudy morning or we would have been grilled. When the sentence was read, the men in the ranks behaved very well, with the exception of a few who wept for their brothers, and fathers among the mutineers. When the irons were put on they were marched past the whole parade, and when they passed us of course they began to cry, and curse the Colonel, and they threw away their boots, almost at him, but they blessed Craigie, and called out that “they hoped he would be a Prince and a Lord.” It was very sad to see these fine men in such a condition. One handsome young man, who stood out a little from the rest, and who is known to be a good soldier, said, “I was a good sepoy, and would have gone anywhere for the service, but I could not forsake my religion.”
Some of our officers went down to the jail to see them, and pay them their wages, and they say it was heart-rending to see them, but yet they accused no one, but thanked them for coming to see them. I did not go as I was so tired from having only 3 hours sleep during the night, that I fell asleep after breakfast, and did not wake up till my Moonshee came in the afternoon. When they were being paid, one man said, “Oh give it to my wife,” another, “Oh give it to my brother; what good is it to me; I am a dead man now.” I pity Colonel Smyth for he must feel it very much, and of course he thinks he did his duty. But I believe they don’t think so at Head Quarters, for it is generally supposed that he will lose his command.
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