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Siege of Arrah

Coordinates: 25°33′26″N 84°39′57″E / 25.557318°N 84.665727°E / 25.557318; 84.665727
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Siege of Arrah
Part of the Indian Rebellion of 1857

House at Arrah fortified against the Dinapore Mutineers, from the Illustrated London News (1857)
Date27 July – 3 August 1857
Location
Arrah, British India, (modern day Bihar)
25°33′26″N 84°39′57″E / 25.557318°N 84.665727°E / 25.557318; 84.665727
Result British victory
Belligerents
East India Company Mutinying Sepoys
Kunwar Singh's forces
Commanders and leaders
Herwald Wake (civilian)
Captain Dunbar †
Major Eyre		 Kunwar Singh
Casualties and losses
Siege: 1 wounded
First relief: About 200 killed
Second relief: 2 killed		 Unknown
Arrah is located in Bihar
Arrah
Arrah
class=notpageimage|
Location of Arrah in modern-day Bihar

The Siege of Arrah was the eight-day defence of a fortified outbuilding by a combination of civilians and members of the Bengal Military Police Battalion against mutinying Bengal Native Infantry sepoys and irregular forces commanded by Kunwar Singh (also known as Koor, or Koer, Sing). After an aborted attempt to break the siege, a second relief effort dispersed the forces surrounding the building and the besieged party escaped.

Background

On 10 May 1857, a mutiny of Bengal Army units stationed in Meerut triggered the Indian Rebellion. The population of Arrah at the time consisted largely of sepoys and their families, British and European employees of the East India Company and their families, a local police force, between 300 and 400 inmates of the local jail and prison guards.[1] The local zamindar, Kunwar Singh, was suspected of disloyalty by the East India Company's civil servants. Three regiments of Bengal Native Infantry were stationed in Dinapore, 25 miles (40 km) away; members of the European population of Arrah expected the regiments to mutiny at any moment, with their expected path to Delhi bringing them directly through the town.[1] Civil-service suspicions were confirmed on 8 June when they were informed by the commissioner of Patna district that a mutiny of the 7th, 8th and 40th regiments of Bengal Native Infantry was expected at any time.[1] The European women and children were sent by boat to Dinapore where they were taken into the care of the 10th Regiment of Foot. After a discussion of the most prudent course of action to take, the European men who were not essential to the government of the town left for Dinapore by boat or on horseback.[1]

Following a suggestion from Herwald Wake, the civilian magistrate of Arrah, Richard Vicars Boyle (District Engineer with the East Indian Railway Company) began to fortify his two-storey, 50-by-50-foot (15 by 15 m) outbuilding (originally intended as a billiard room) and completed his work by 17 June.[1] The arches of the verandah were filled in with bricks without mortar, leaving small holes in the walls for defenders to shoot through. Gaps between pillars on the second storey were filled with bricks and sandbags. Boyle stored food, water, wine and beer in the building in anticipation of unrest in the town.[2] He was scorned by his neighbours, who thought it unlikely that a small band of men could hold out against a large group of mutinying sepoys and rebellious locals.[3] Although it was suggested that the civil servants should move their headquarters to Boyle's building, the suggestion was dismissed due to objections to its location, the close proximity of trees, outbuildings and other houses and the possibility that abandoning their current headquarters would lead to disorder in the town.[1]

In June, rumours (later confirmed) reached Arrah of rebellion throughout the Bengal Presidency; intelligence gathered by civil servants in Arrah pointing to outbreaks in the district on 15, 20 and 23 June proved to be false.[1] News also reached the town, after the relief of the Siege of Cawnpore, of a massacre there; information arrived throughout July from other towns about the killing of Europeans, leading to a decision by the civil servants of Arrah to mount nightly armed patrols.[1] At the end of June, 57 men from the Bengal Military Police Battalion (known as Rattray's Sikhs) were placed under the command of Herwald Wake to assist him in dealing with outbreaks in the area. A number of these men were posted at strategic points along the roads leading to Arrah as scouts.[3] On 17 July, an anonymous note was found on a table in Wake's house saying that a mutiny of sepoys was "certain to take place" on 25 July; according to the note, Kunwar Singh was directly involved.[1]

Battle

Siege

Sketch of a seated man surrounded by other men
Koor Sing, "The Rebel of Arrah", and his attendants – From a photograph, from the Illustrated London News (1857)

25 miles (40 km) east of Arrah, the 7th, 8th and 40th Regiments of Bengal Native Infantry were stationed in Dinapore. Discussions had taken place about disarming the units, and Governor-General Lord Canning delegated responsibility for the decision to General Lloyd. Instead of disarming the regiments, on the morning of 25 July Lloyd ordered the sepoys to hand in their percussion caps. The 7th and 8th Regiments refused, and fired on their officers. The 10th and 37th Regiment of Foot, also stationed in Dinapore, then opened fire on the mutineers. The 40th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, who had begun to comply with Lloyd's order, were also fired on in the confusion. All three regiments of Bengal Native Infantry then left Dinapore, heading toward Arrah. At the outbreak of the disturbance, Lloyd could not be located; by the time he was found aboard a river steamboat and orders were given to apprehend the mutineers, they were too far away to be caught.[4] Lloyd, believing that his forces should remain in place to defend Dinapore, did not order the pursuit of the mutineers.[5]

On the evening of 25 July, information arrived at Arrah that a disturbance was to be expected in the district.[1] Herwald Wake had been told by a railway engineer stationed nearby that the boats used to cross the Son River would be destroyed; when Wake was informed on the morning of the 26th that the mutineers were crossing the river, he realised that the boats had in fact not been destroyed as promised.[6] Wake, who had no information about the number of mutinying sepoys and other forces approaching Arrah, noted that the local police force had disappeared and he decided not to abandon the town. Eighteen civilians and fifty members of the Bengal Military Police Battalion moved into Richard Boyle's fortified building and bricked themselves up inside.[5] The building had stores of food, drink and ammunition (with gunpowder and lead to make more if required), entrenching tools and weapons the men had brought with them. The supplies were thought to be sufficient for a few days and, since they expected the mutineers to be followed by pursuing forces, the men anticipated a brief siege of no more than 48 hours.[5] On the morning of 27 July the mutineers, joined by Kunwar Singh and his forces, arrived in Arrah. They released the prisoners from the jail and, joined by its guards, looted the treasury of 85,000 rupees. The mutineers and rebels then surrounded the house with drums and bugles playing, arranged themselves into formation and charged. When the mutineers were within 100 yards the men inside opened fire, killing a number of them and forcing them to stop their charge and take shelter behind the surrounding trees and buildings.[1]

Over the following seven days the besieged party faced constant musket fire, with fire from two artillery pieces after 28 July. Although an attempt was made to drive the men out of the house by making a large fire of furniture and chilli peppers, a last-minute shift in wind direction blew the smoke away from the house. Every evening, a voice loudly invited the Sikh sepoys in the house to slaughter the Europeans and join the mutineers; it was met at first with sarcasm, and later by gunfire from the building.[1] When the party began to run out of water, sepoys sneaked out of the building during the night, stole tools from their opponents and dug an 18-foot (5.5 m)-deep well in about 12 hours. When food began to run out, a small group left the building in darkness and returned with three sheep.[1] The mutineers and rebel forces did not attempt another charge on the building, although its occupants expected an attack at any moment during the siege.[1][2][6]

First relief attempt

Sketch of a man with a rifle supporting another, injured man
William Tayler's Ross Mangles rescuing the wounded soldier from his 1882 Thirty-Eight Years in India. From Juganath to the Himalaya Mountains

News reached Dinapore on 27 July that mutinying sepoys had attacked Arrah. General Lloyd was still unwilling to send troops to pursue the mutineers until he was persuaded to do so by pressure from magistrates (who were friends of the besieged party) and the Commissioner of Patna William Tayler. A party of 200 from the 37th Regiment of Foot and 50 from the Bengal Military Police Battalion were sent by river steamer to rescue the town's civil servants. News arrived in Dinapore the following day that the steamer was aground on a sandbank, and Lloyd ordered the party recalled. Under pressure from local government officials, he changed his mind and agreed to send a large force of the 10th Regiment of Foot under Colonel Fenwick to join the party on the steamer and head to Arrah. Due to the second steamer's lower passenger capacity, a reduced force of about 150 (including seven civilian volunteers) departed on 29 July. Colonel Fenwick, unwilling to carry out the mission with only 150 men, delegated its command to Captain Dunbar. The second steamer reached the first, and the combined force of about 400 then headed towards Arrah.[5]

The expedition arrived at a large island on the Ganges, and disembarked at about 4:00 pm. Finding no boats available on the island, the party took three hours to cross the river and head inland. After marching 4 miles (6 km), Captain Dunbar halted 3 miles (5 km) from Arrah for one hour to see if his supplies would catch up to him. When the supplies did not arrive he ordered the expedition to press on, despite warnings from his subordinate officers of the danger of hungry, tired men marching through unfamiliar territory at night. Up to this point in the expedition, Dunbar had sent skirmishers as scouts ahead of his main body of troops; he now decided not to do so and the men advanced in a single body. As the party neared Arrah, they spotted men on horseback at a distance who rode away as they approached. When the expedition was about 1 mile (2 km) from Arrah, its route passed through a thick grove of mango trees. When the party was almost through the grove, they were fired on from three sides by a force they estimated as 2,000 to 3,000 in number.[5] The party retreated with heavy casualties, including Captain Dunbar (who was killed in the initial ambush). During the retreat from Arrah, Ross Mangles and William Fraser McDonell (civilian magistrates who had volunteered to serve with Captain Dunbar's expedition) earned the Victoria Cross. The expedition returned to Dinapore after losing an estimated half of its 400 men.[5]

The besieged party in Arrah heard gunfire as the expedition approached them, becoming more distant as the expedition retreated.[1][2][6] A wounded member of the Bengal Military Police Battalion who was part of Captain Dunbar's force avoided the mutinying sepoys surrounding Boyle's building. Pulled up with a rope into the building, he told its occupants about the night's events.[1]

Second attempt

Sketch of a bearded man in uniform
Sketch of Major Vincent Eyre from the Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine, March 1, 1888

Major Vincent Eyre, a Bengal Artillery officer in command of Number 1 Company, 4th Bengal Foot Artillery (now 58 (Eyre's) Battery, 12th Regiment Royal Artillery), then stationed in Buxar, was under orders to head to Cawnpore with his battery. He had heard news of the situation in Arrah and, unaware of any relief expedition, decided on his own to collect troops to reinforce the expedition he believed would take place. Finding no troops available at Buxar, Eyre went to Ghazipur and convinced a company commander of the 5th Regiment of Foot to join him with the understanding that Eyre bore full responsibility. Unable to locate horses to move his battery's guns, Eyre used bullocks (neutered bulls) instead. After assembling a force of 225 men (including civilian volunteers), Eyre wrote to General Lloyd at Dinapore informing him of his intentions. On 30 July, at about 4:00 pm, Eyre's expedition started for Arrah.[5]

Lloyd's reply, informing Eyre of the failure of the first relief attempt and ordering him to return to Buxar, arrived while the party was already en route. Eyre disregarded Lloyd's order and continued towards Arrah.[5] On 2 August, still over 6 miles (10 km) from his objective, Eyre's force encountered an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 mutinying sepoys accompanied by Kunwar Singh's forces in an attempt to intercept him.[6] Greatly outnumbered, Eyre's party became surrounded. He then ordered the infantry to charge with bayonets and the artillery to fire on the mutineers. This caused the mutinying sepoys to retreat, with an estimated 600 casualties.[5] Eyre's party, with only two killed,[6] then continued towards Arrah. Blocked by a river, they built a bridge which they completed the following day. When they crossed the river the morning of 3 August, a villager gave them a letter from Herwald Wake telling them that the besieged men had heard about their approach and "We are all well".[5]

Throughout the day of 2 August the besieged party heard distant cannon fire and saw people in the town hurriedly loading carts with their belongings.[2] The constant fire from muskets on the building lessened and finally ceased; it was approached by two men, who told the occupants that the besiegers were defeated and a relief force was expected to arrive in Arrah the following day.[1] The occupants were sceptical, despite visual evidence, and sent out a small party to reconnoitre the area - they found no sign of the mutineers and brought in a large quantity of gunpowder and the mutineers' two artillery pieces.[1] They then sent a party under cover of darkness to destroy a number of outhouses which the mutineers had been using as cover.[1] This party discovered a mine dug directly under the foundations of the building by the mutineers, charged and ready to be primed. The charge was destroyed, despite doubts of its viability.[2] The following morning at about 7:00, two members of Major Eyre's expedition arrived at the house and the siege was officially broken. Eyre, In his official report, wrote that Wake's defence of the building "seems to have been almost miraculous". About the outcome of the first relief attempt, he wrote: "I venture to affirm, confidently, that no such disaster would have been likely to occur, had that detachment advanced less precipitately, so as to have given full time for my force to approach direct from the opposite side, for the rebels would then have been hemmed in between the two opposing forces".[6]

Aftermath

Eyre, after receiving reinforcements, pursued Kunwar Singh's forces to his palace in Jagdispur; many civilians who were besieged in Arrah volunteered to serve with him. Although Eyre routed Singh's forces and occupied the palace by 12 August, Singh had fled. Eyre destroyed the palace, Singh's brothers' houses and a Brahmin temple (and was officially censured for doing so).[7]

According to Herwald Wake's official report about the siege, "Nothing but cowardice, want of unanimity, and only the ignorance of our enemies, prevented our fortification being brought down about our ears". District commissioner William Tayler wrote, "The conduct of the garrison is most creditable, and the gallantry and fidelity of the Sikhs beyond all praise."[6]

Awards

For their actions during the siege, Herwald Wake was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath[8] and Richard Vicars Boyle was made a Companion of the Order of the Star of India[9] after the 1861 creation of the order.[10] A few days after the relief of Arrah, the 50 members of the Bengal Military Police Battalion received a gratuity of 12 months' pay as a reward for their loyalty and their Jemadar was promoted to Subadar upon Wake's recommendation.[6] The battalion received the Defence of Arrah battle honour.[11]

Present day

The besieged building still stands on the grounds of Maharaja College,[12] and there are plans to make it a tourist attraction.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Halls, John James (1860). Two months in Arrah in 1857. London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts.
  2. ^ a b c d e Boyle, Robert Vicars (1858). Indian Mutiny. Brief Narrative of the Defence of the Arrah Garrison. London: W. Thacker & Co.
  3. ^ a b Forrest, George W. (2006). A history of the Indian mutiny, 1857–58 : reviewed and illustrated from original documents : with maps, plans, and portraits (AES reprint. ed.). New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. p. 428. ISBN 8120619994.
  4. ^ Malleson, George Bruce (1858). The mutiny of the Bengal army : an historical narrative. London: Bosworth & Harrison.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sieveking, Isabel Giberne (1910). A turning point in the Indian mutiny. London: David Nutt.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h "Supplement to The London Gazette, October 13, 1857". No. 22050. 13 October 1857. pp. 3418–3422. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  7. ^ "The London Gazette, December 4, 1857". No. 22069. 4 December 1857. pp. 4262–4264. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  8. ^ "The London Gazette, May 18, 1860". No. 22387. 18 May 1860. p. 1916. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  9. ^ "The London Gazette, June 4, 1869". No. 23504. 4 June 1869. pp. 3182–3183. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  10. ^ "The Montreal Gazette". 21 January 1908. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  11. ^ Singh, Sarbans (1993). Battle Honours of the Indian Army 1757 – 1971. New Delhi: Vision Books. ISBN 81-7094-115-6.
  12. ^ "Our College - Maharaja College Ara". maharajacollegeara.com. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  13. ^ "CJ's chance visit helps breathe life into Ara House". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
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