The Skull of Alum Bheg

by Kim A. Wagner

  24.Dr Graham to J. Graham, 29 June 1857, The Graham Indian Mutiny Papers, p. 36.

  25.Letter from T. Hunter, 9 June 1857, Youngson, Forty Years, p. 98.

  26.Letter from A. Hill, 17 July 1857, Evangelical Repository, p. 317.

  27.Ibid.

  28.Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, p. 19.

  29.Ibid., p. 20.

  30.Dr Graham to J. Graham, 8 July 1857, The Graham Indian Mutiny Papers, p. 42.

  31.Ibid.

  32.Ibid.

  33.Ibid.

  34.Chick, Annals of the Indian Rebellion, p. 742.

  35.A. Brandreth to R. Montgomery, 18 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, p. 218.

  36.Letter by Rev. Boyle, 14 July 1857, ‘Letter written by a clergyman’, The Times, 8 Sept. 1857.

  37.Ibid.

  38.Ibid.

  39.Boyle’s account has a strong teleological slant.

  40.Ibid.

  41.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 146.

  42.Ibid.

  43.Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, pp. 59–60.

  44.Letter by Mr. Jones, 13 July 1857, The Times, 2 Sept. 1857.

  45.Account from Courrier de Lyon, The Morning Chronicle, 23 Sept 1857.

  46.Letter written by A.H. Princep, 14 July, 1857, ‘The Mutiny at Sealkote,’ The Times, 1 Sept. 1857.

  5.TENANTS OF PANDEMONIUM

  1.Letter by Mr. Jones, 13 July 1857, The Times, 2 Sept. 1857.

  2.Letter by Officer in 52nd, ‘The Indian Revolt’, The Derby Mercury, 21 Oct. 1857.

  3.Ibid.

  4.Letter by Mr. Jones, 13 July 1857, The Times, 2 Sept. 1857.

  5.Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, 60. See also Frederic Cooper, The Crisis in Punjab, from the 10th of May until the Fall of Delhi, London: Smith, Elders and Co., 1858, p. 137.

  6.Report by Lieut. Col. A. Campbell, 11 July 1857, in ‘Report regarding the mutinees of the 14th and 46th Regiment Native Infantry at Jhelum and Sealkote’, National Archives of India (NAI), Military Department, 15 July 1857, 83 A.

  7.Dodd, The History of the Indian Revolt, p. 203.

  8.Khan, The Causes of the Indian Revolt, p. 53.

  9.J.G. Medley, A Year’s Campaigning in India, from March, 1857, to March, 1858, London: W. Thacker and Co., 1858, p. 34.

  10.Report by Lieut. Col. A. Campbell, 11 July 1857, in ‘Report regarding the mutinees of the 14th and 46th Regiment Native Infantry at Jhelum and Sealkote’, National Archives of India (NAI), Military Department, 15 July 1857, 83 A.

  11.‘Letter from a Lady in the Punjab’, Isle of Wight Observer, 31 Oct. 1857. It was common for private letters to be anonymised when they were published in the press, but the lady in question is undoubtedly Mrs Caulfield.

  12.Literally: ‘English infidels’.

  13.Cooper, The Crisis in Punjab, pp. 137–8.

  14.Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, p. 60; and ‘The Roman Catholic Residents in India, The Standard, 22 Oct. 1857.

  15.Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, p. 60.

  16.Letter from Officer of 46th BNI, ‘The Mutiny at Sealkote’, The Times, 1 Sept. 1857.

  17.Mainodin, in Metcalfe, Two Native Narratives, p. 60.

  18.Roy, ‘Visions of the Rebels’, p. 209.

  19.Letter from Officer of 46th BNI, The Times, 1 Sept. 1857.

  20.R.C. Lawrence to R. Montgomery, 18 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, pp. 234–235.

  21.366 prisoners were released from the jail at Sialkot, of whom 153 were recaptured, see ‘Gaols’, The Homeward Mail, 8 March 1859.

  22.Wagner, The Great Fear, p. 146.

  23.Luke 9:1.

  24.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 148.

  25.‘As per Return furnished by the Deputy Commissioner of Sealkote’, The London Gazette, 6 May 1858, p. 2245.

  26.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 148.

  27.Ibid.

  28.Wagner, The Great Fear, pp. 172–3, and 180.

  29.Andrew Ward, Our Bones are Scattered: the Cawnpore Massacre and the Mutiny of 1857, London: John Murray, 1996, pp. 416–17.

  30.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 154.

  31.Letter from Captain Montgomerie, 13 July 1857, ‘The Mutiny at Sealkote’, The Times, 2 Sept. 1857.

  32.‘The Mutiny at Sealkote,’ The Times, 1 Sept. 1857.

  33.Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, p. 38–39.

  34.‘The Mutiny at Sealkote’, The Times, 2 Sept. 1857.

  35.Ibid.

  36.Ibid.

  37.‘The Mutiny at Sealkote,’ The Times, 1 Sept. 1857.

  38.Ibid.

  39.Report by Brevet Colonel G. Farquharson, 11 July 1857, in ‘Report regarding the mutinees of the 14th and 46th Regiment Native Infantry at Jhelum and Sealkote’, National Archives of India (NAI), Military Department, 15 July 1857, 83 A.

  40.‘The Mutiny at Sealkote’, The Times, 2 Sept. 1857.

  41.Letter from Officer of 46th BNI, The Times, 1 Sept. 1857.

  42.The cote is the bell-of-arms, a small structure where arms are kept. The Kote Havildar was the Indian NCO responsible for handing out and locking up firearms and ammunition.

  43.‘Letter from a Lady in the Punjab’, Isle of Wight Observer, 31 Oct. 1857.

  44.Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, p. 53.

  45.Ibid.

  46.Ibid.

  47.‘Letter from a Lady in the Punjab’, Isle of Wight Observer, 31 Oct. 1857.

  48.Quoted in Wayne G. Broehl Jr, Crisis of the Raj: The Revolt of 1857 through British Lieutenants’ Eyes, Dartmouth: University Press of New England, 1986, p. 74. We do not know any details about the exact accusations levelled at officers at Sialkot.

  49.This is her husband, Lorne Campbell, the commanding officer of the 9th BLC.

  50.‘Letter from India’, Glasgow Herald, 11 Sept. 1857.

  51.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 149.

  52.Gordon, Our India Mission, pp. 149–150. The details of this description suggest that Gordon wrote it based on a first-hand account.

  53.Ibid., p. 150.

  54.The London Gazette, 6 May 1858, p. 2243.

  55.Gordon, Our India Mission, pp. 150–151.

  56.J.H. Butler to C.A. McMahon, 11 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, p. 239. Thanks to Gajendra Singh for translating the Hindi in this account.

  57.Ibid.

  58.Ibid.

  59.Ibid., pp. 239–40.

  60.Extract of a letter from J.H. Butler, ‘Sealkote’, The Times, 7 Sept. 1857.

  61.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 151.

  62.J.H. Butler to C.A. McMahon, 11 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, pp. 242–3.

  63.See Roy (ed.), 1857 Uprising for an account by a regimental munshi.

  64.J.H. Butler to C.A. McMahon, 11 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, pp. 240–1.

  65.Ibid., p. 241.

  66.Ibid.

  67.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 153.

  68.Ibid. See also The London Gazette, 6 May 1858, p. 2243.

  69.J.H. Butler to C.A. McMahon, 11 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, p. 241.

  70.Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, p. 61.

  71.Ibid.

  72.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 152.

  73.J.H. Butler to C.A. McMahon, 11 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, p. 242.

  6.THEIR BLOOD HAVE THEY SHED LIKE WATER

  1.Letter by Mr. Jones, 13 July 1857, The Times, 2 Sept. 1857.

  2.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 146.

  3.‘Letter written by a clergyman’, The Times, 8 Sept. 1857. In his letter, addressed to his wife, Boyle accords himself a more assertive role in the outbreak that does not correspond with either the facts, or indeed with the other accounts of his conduct during the preceding months.

  4.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 148.

  5.Ibid., p. 147.

  6.Ibid.

  7.Ibid.

  8.Letter by Mr. Jones, 13 July 1857, The Times, 2 Sept. 1857.

  9.The London Gazette, 6 May 1858, p. 2244.

  10.‘The Murdered Missionaries’, The Manchester Times, 24 Oct 1857.


  11.Ibid. See also Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 149.

  12.The London Gazette, 6 May 1858, p. 2244. One of the eye-witnesses was a prisoner who had just been released, see Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, p. 24.

  13.Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, p. 25.

  14.Gordon, Our India Mission, pp. 155–6. See also Youngson, Forty Years, pp. 106–7.

  15.‘Letter from India’, Glasgow Herald, 11 Sept. 1857.

  16.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 153. The description of Sarah Graham’s experience is obviously embellished in Gordon’s retelling, but is unlikely to be entirely fictional as it is the only part of his account of the Sialkot outbreak that contains so many direct quotes and details of emotions. Since Sarah Graham was being looked after by Rev. Boyle while in the fort, and Boyle and Gordon were close friends, it would seem most likely that Boyle told Gordon what Sarah had told him.

  17.Robinson, Angels of Albion, p. 180.

  18.‘The Roman Catholic Residents in India, The Standard, 22 Oct. 1857; and Dodd, The History of the Indian Revolt, p. 203.

  19.Dodd, The History of the Indian Revolt, p. 203–4

  20.‘The Roman Catholic Residents in India, The Standard, 22 Oct. 1857.

  21.Letter by Mr. Jones, 13 July 1857, The Times, 2 Sept. 1857.

  22.A Brandreth to G.F. Edmonstone, 23 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, p. 226. See also Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 160.

  23.R.C. Lawrence to R. Montgomery, 18 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, pp. 233.

  24.‘The Indian Revolt’, The Derby Mercury, 21 Oct. 1857.

  25.Elsewhere the aims of sepoys, peasants and landowners converged to a far greater degree, see Roy, The Politics of a Popular Uprising; and Mukherjee, Awadh in Revolt.

  26.This was the wife of the civil surgeon, who was not related to Dr Graham.

  27.‘Letter from India’, Glasgow Herald, 11 Sept. 1857.

  28.Horse-drawn carriage.

  29.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 155.

  30.The London Gazette, 6 May 1858, p. 2243.

  31.‘Letter from a Lady in the Punjab’, Isle of Wight Observer, 31 Oct. 1857.

  32.McMahon cited in Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, p. 63.

  33.The London Gazette, 6 May 1858, p. 2243. This was the wife of the other Dr Graham.

  34.‘The Indian Revolt’, The Derby Mercury, 21 Oct. 1857.

  35.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 156.

  36.Sealkote’, The Times, 7 Sept. 1857.

  37.‘Letter from India’, Glasgow Herald, 11 Sept. 1857.

  38.Youngson, Forty Years, pp. 109–110.

  39.‘The Indian Revolt’, The Derby Mercury, 21 Oct. 1857.

  40.‘The Roman Catholic Residents in India, The Standard, 22 Oct. 1857.

  41.McMahon cited in Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, p. 61.

  42.Alexander Duff, The Indian Rebellion: Its Causes and Results—In a Series of Letters, London: s.n., 1858, pp. 54–5.

  43.See for instance Letter from A. Gordon, 30 June 1857, Evangelical Repository, pp. 310–313.

  44.Dodd, The History of the Indian Revolt, p. 203.

  45.‘The Mutiny at Sealkote,’ The Times, 1 Sept. 1857.

  46.Cooper, The Crisis in Punjab, p. 136.

  47.Cooper, The Crisis in Punjab, p. 137.

  48.See Edward Leckey, Fictions Connected with the Indian Outbreak of 1857 Exposed, Bombay: Chesson and Woodhall, 1859.

  49.‘Simla’, The Times, 9 Oct. 1857.

  50.‘Sepoy atrocities’, The Morning Chronicle, 3 Oct. 1857.

  51.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 156.

  52.Account from Courrier de Lyon, The Morning Chronicle, 23 Sept 1857.

  53.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 156.

  54.Report by Brevet Colonel G. Farquharson, 11 July 1857, in ‘Report regarding the mutinees of the 14th and 46th Regiment Native Infantry at Jhelum and Sealkote’, National Archives of India (NAI), Military Department, 15 July 1857, 83 A.

  55.‘The Mutiny at Sealkote’, The Times, 2 Sept. 1857; and ‘The Mutiny at Sealkote,’ The Times, 1 Sept. 1857. No single regiment in the Bengal Army was one hundred percent homogenous in terms of caste and religion of the soldiers and there was evidently a few Hindus in the 9th BLC.

  56.Report by Lieut. Col. A. Campbell, 11 July 1857, in ‘Report regarding the mutinees of the 14th and 46th Regiment Native Infantry at Jhelum and Sealkote’, National Archives of India (NAI), Military Department, 15 July 1857, 83 A.

  57.M.A. Sherring, The Indian Church During the Great Rebellion, London: James Nisbet and Co., 1859, p. 326.

  58.A Brandreth to G.F. Edmonstone, 23 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, p. 225.

  59.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 147.

  7.GORGING VULTURES AND HOWLING JACKALS

  1.Roy, ‘Visions of the Rebels’, p. 210.

  2.Khan, The Causes of the Indian Revolt, pp. 47–8.

  3.This happened on numerous occasions, see Dalrymple, The Last Mughal.

  4.Report by John Nicholson, 19 July 1857, ‘India’, The Belfast Newsletter, 8 Dec. 1857; Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, p. 68; and Cooper, The Crisis in Punjab, p. 143.

  5.A.A. Roberts to R. Montgomery, 7 Aug. 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, p. 345.

  6.Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, 74, n.; and Dalrymple, The Last Mughal, p. 307. See also Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, p. 395.

  7.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 16; and Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, p. 10. This was obviously a nickname given by British officers.

  8.Roy (ed.), 1857 Uprising, p. 43.

  9.‘The 52nd Regiment’, The Times, 11 Dec. 1857.

  10.‘India’, The Belfast Newsletter, 8 Dec. 1857

  11.Ibid.

  12.Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, p. 396.

  13.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, p. 57.

  14.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 13; and Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, pp. 72–73.

  15.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 14.

  16.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, p. 22.

  17.Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, p. 73.

  18.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, pp. 53–54.

  19.Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, p. 394.

  20.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, p. 54.

  21.Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, p. 397.

  22.‘The 52nd Regiment’, The Times, 11 Dec. 1857.

  23.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 18.

  24.Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, pp. 397–398.

  25.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 18.

  26.Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, p. 75.

  27.A Brandreth to G.F. Edmonstone, 23 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, pp. 225–6.

  28.Cooper, The Crisis in Punjab, p. 148.

  29.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, p. 57.

  30.Ibid., pp. 58–59. There is probably some embellishment in this anecdote.

  31.Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, p. 397.

  32.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 18.

  33.Thanks to Gajendra Singh for his expert input.

  34.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 18.

  35.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, p. 59.

  36.Ibid., p. 60.

  37.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 18.

  38.‘The 52nd Regiment’, The Times, 11 Dec. 1857.

  39.Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, p. 397.

  40.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 19.

  41.Ibid.

  42.‘The Indian Mutiny’, Glasgow Herald, 9 Nov. 1857.

  43.Cooper, The Crisis in Punjab, pp. 148–149.

  44.The Times, 11 Dec 1857.

  45.Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second Moorsom, 397.

  46.Cooper, The Crisis in Punjab, Cooper 148.

  47.Glasgow Herald 9 Nov 1857.

  48.W. Leeke, The History of Lord Seaton�
�s Regiment (The 52nd Light Infantry), London: Hatchard and Co., 1866, II, p. 395; Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, p. 61. See also Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, p. 398.

  49.‘The 52nd Regiment’, The Times, 11 Dec. 1857.

  50.Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, p. 77.

  51.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, p. 67.

  52.Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, p. 398.

  53.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, pp. 64–5.

  54.Diaries of Col. E.L. Ommaney, vol. A, pt 6, entry for July 1857, Umritsur, NAM, 6301/143, p. 91. Thanks to Jacob Smith for help getting this account.

  55.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, p. 65.

  56.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 21.

  57.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, pp. 70–71.

  58.Cooper, The Crisis in Punjab, p. 148; and Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, p. 69.

  59.Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, p. 399.

  60.Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, p. 78.

  61.Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 22.

  62.Cave-Browne, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857, II, p. 79. See also Bourchier, Eight Month’s Campaign, p. 22.

  63.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, p. 73.

  64.Ibid., p. 72.

  65.Leeke, The History of Lord Seaton’s Regiment, II, p. 396.

  66.Wilberforce, An Unrecorded Chapter, pp. 71–2.

  67.Ibid.

  68.S.S. Thorburn, The Punjab in Peace and War, Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1904, p. 217.

  69.‘London, Monday, Sept.14, 1857’, The Morning Post, 14 Sept. 1857.

  70.Moorsom, Historical Record of the Fifty-Second, p. 398.

  8.JUSTICE SO PROMPT AND VIGOROUS

  1.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 142. Italics in original.

  2.Ibid.

  3.‘Letter from India’, Glasgow Herald, 11 Sept. 1857; and The London Gazette, 6 May 1858, p. 2244.

  4.Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, pp. 79–80.

  5.Gordon, Our India Mission, p. 156. According to Rich two more Englishmen died in the days following the outbreak, Captain J.E. Sharpe, and Hospital Sergeant Nully. They were both buried next to the fort, see Rich, The Mutiny in Sialkot, p. 79. We do not know anything about these men, nor how they died.

  6.R.C. Lawrence to R. Montgomery, 18 July 1857, Mutiny Records 7:1, p. 233.