Indian Rebellion of 1857

A night march of thirty-six miles

Sepoys who rebelled at Meerut on 10 May 1857 marched roughly 36 miles to Delhi, took control of the city the next day, and secured the support of further regiments. The whole sequence took under 24 hours.

It was not the work of one homogeneous force. Meerut sepoys, defecting Delhi troops and civilian participants all had parts in it, and rebels aided by people from the Delhi bazaar killed Europeans and Indian Christians in the city.

The pensioner at the Red Fort

The mutineers went to the Red Fort to request Bahadur Shah Zafar's support and leadership. The elderly and politically weak Mughal emperor accepted reluctantly and became the rebellion's emblematic leader.

He had neither planned the march nor begun the uprising; armed men arrived at his palace and asked him to lead them.

The magazine and the last telegram

Nine East India Company ordnance personnel defended the Delhi magazine under George Willoughby. When attackers scaled its walls and relief appeared impossible, the defenders ignited the magazine rather than surrender the arsenal intact.

Before abandoning their office, Delhi's telegraph staff sent warnings that the Meerut sepoys had arrived, that bungalows were burning and that communications were collapsing; the message was relayed onward from Ambala.

Company authority inside the city had collapsed by the end of the day. What the rebels had gained was a major political and symbolic centre, not a unified national command.