These web pages present contemporary sources in an attempt to sort out the confused story of the massacre of British army officers near the village of Mahua Dabar, south of Basti in northern India, in June 1857, and the subsequent reprisals by the British. Please note that I have not (except for the substitution [N-word]) changed the quoted texts, which very often display 19th-century attitudes and terminology, plus a wide variety of attempts to transliterate local names and other words. However, I have sometimes added my own comments and clarifications [in italics in square brackets].
Details of the destruction of Mahua Dabar and other actions by William Peppé are given on a separate page.
[Indian events in June and early July] "At Patna, Dr. Robt. Lyall, opium agent, was killed when putting down a disturbance; he was shot from a window.
Captain Holland and his brother-in-law, Mr. Fell, were murdered at Chullureea, and their bodies thrown into a well, out of which General Van Cortlandt had them taken. The village was razed.
At Sirsa the tombs of all the Christians had been despoiled.
A letter from Goruckpore says:-
'A few weeks ago every man would have trembled lest even a drunken European should get injured near their village; but now they have seen English officers and their wives flying from Oude- five of them murdered with impunity- they have seen others stripped, go barefooted, nearly naked, hungered and athirst; threatened with death, and subject to every humiliation. Having seen all this, how is it possible that they can any longer fear us?- and it was only fear that made our rule so strong.' "
p51: a report from Patna dated 5 July 1857 mentions that on Friday (3 July), Mr [George] Peppe was one of the first Europeans (escorted by a party of Sikhs) to see the body of Dr R. Lyell "Principal Assistant to the Opium Agent of Behar", shot when confronting a mob at the opium godowns in Patna: "Mr. Peppe, and another gentleman connected with the opium factory, came up, and, though warned by the Sikhs, at once proceeded in advance of them to where the body of Dr. Lyell was lying. Fortunately the rebels had, in the meantime, made off ..."
"The following is from Major Holmes's Irregulars, Segowlee:-
'June 15.
We have been very busy making arrangements for the march of the Goorkhas, but now they are not come. We have saved Goruckpore, and have patrols out all over the country. We have sent two detachments to recover Azinghur, one by Allygunge, the other from Goruckpore. That country is one scene of pillage. We hung two Sepoys of the 37th mutineers the night before last. This part of the country is kept in perfect order, but every one now knows that he will be hung for one word of treason.' "
"(FROM A CIVIL SERVANT)
ALLAHABAD, JUNE 28 [an account of brutalities on both sides, including the actions of the writer]
... When we could once get out of the fort we were all over the place, cutting down all natives who showed any signs of opposition; we enjoyed these trips very much, so pleasant it was to get out of that fort for a few hours. One trip I enjoyed amazingly; we got on board a steamer with a gun, while the Sikhs and Fusiliers marched up to the city; we steamed up, throwing shot right and left, till we got up to the bad places, when we went on shore and peppered away with our guns, my old double barrel that I brought out bringing down several [N-word]s, so thirsty for vengeance was I. We fired the places right and left, and the flames shot up to the heavens as they spread, fanned by the breeze, showing that the day of vengeance had fallen on the treacherous villains. ..."
"The following is from Goruckpore, dated July 23-
All quiet here.- 200 Goorkhas have been here some time past; 3,000 are within a few miles of this; we expect them here the day after to-morrow. By letters from Azimghur we learn that Venables was attacked on the 18th, prior to which he had been joined by the civilians on their return from Benares along with Captain Boileau and some other officers on their way to join the Goorkha troops. A Talookdar of Oudh, named Madho Persaud, brought a force of some 500 men. Venables had some 125 of the 200 of the 65th N.I. and one gun. The rebels were obliged to retire after losing some 200 men. They had plundered some villages on their way to Azimghur, and when returning, the inhabitants turned out to our aid, killing the leader Madho Persaud and his nephew- fourteen prisoners taken. Our loss was seven or eight killed, and Lieut. Lewis wounded by a musket ball below the knee. Mr Pepps [sic], who is out at Bustee with some 50 sowars of the 12th Irregulars, has destroyed the village of Mowar Dabur, when six of the officers of the 22nd N.I. were killed- he has also released Mrs. Major Mills and family along with some sergeants' wives who were in the hands of Maun Sing. No news of Col. Goldney, we fear he must have been murdered by the 17th N.I."
"A Mofussil correspondent writes from Dinapore on the 1st [August]:
'Rebellion, like a wild flame, leaping from town to town, has at last reached the district of Behar. The 12th Irregular Cavalry stationed at Segowlie set the example. On the 23d ultimo they brutally murdered Major and Mrs. Holmes, whilst taking their evening drive, decapitated them; after that they proceeded to Dr. Gardner's bungalow, forced it open, butchered him, his wife, and one of their children (the other, a little girl, having by a happy accident escaped observation), and lastly killed Mr. Bennett, the Deputy Postmaster. After enacting this tragedy, the rebels left at about three a.m. 200 strong, with 150 followers, 2 elephants, palkees, carriages, &c., and crossed the Gunduk at Gobindgunj, on the 24th and 25th, stating to the police that they were going on duty to Sewan. Proividentially, Edwin McDonall, sub deputy opium agent, and Lynch, had just time enough to cut and run for it across the fields. They are now, I am happy to add, safe at Dinapore. Their residences were, however, fired, and the villains galloped on to a village called Setulpore Buraja, within five miles of Chuoprah, when, hearinmg that the magistrate sahib was coming down on them with 500 goras, they decamped, and have, I hear, gone off towards Goruckpore. Poor Holmes' head has not to this day been found. Sad victim of mistaken confidence! Little didst thou suspect that the miscreants who were cherished by thee as 'children' would sheathe their swords, instead of their hearts, in thy bosom! This will, I trust, open the eyes of the government to the suicidal nature of the policy hitherto pursued by them, of pampering the Mahommedan at the expense of the Briton, of elevating the bearded assassin and ignoring the kindred East Indian.' "
[<>quoting the Poonah Observer on the mutinies in Segowlie and Dinapore]: "Here are regiments ... breaking out at the eleventh hour, when the tide was turning in our favour, and when European troops were passing continually up the river, thereby rendering the destruction of the mutineers certain- as if they had waited for some mysterious order just like the Bareilly troops. Altogether, the more we ponder over it the more mysterious the whole matter appears to us."
"... extracts from a letter of the Rev. H. Stern, of the Church Missionary Society, at Goruckpore, August 3 ...
'Last week we received help from Nepaul. 3,000 Nepaulese soldiers are now in our station, and with their assistance our Sepoys and Irregulars were disarmed last Saturday. All gentlemen have Nepaulese guards, and I also have four sentries about my house by day, and 16 at night. Two gentlemen and a lady, with two children, are in my house. This poor lady is Mrs. Mill, fugitive from Fyzabad. Her husband, Major Mill, is one of those who was murdered in this district; however, she has still some hope of his being alive. This poor lady was wandering about in the district for a fortnight, with her three children, one of whom died since she came here. She has suffered awful hardships and privations, and was obliged to beg her bread in the villages. I am thankful to say that she is recovering and gaining strength. Other fugitives were brought in, among them five women and seven children, one of whom was born on the road during the flight. It is most wonderful that we have hitherto kept so quiet; a special Providence has watched over us. The Nepaulese troops expect to be ordered away, in which case we should not have any protection here. The gentlemen are talking of leaving the station, and proceeding to a place where there are European troops. In this case I shall go also, and remove all my native Christans. May the Lord have mercy on us and prevent so disastrous a movement! Yesterday I preached to the English, most of whom were armed with loaded pistols and revolvers.' "
p729: [the takeover of Gorakhpur] "On the 1st August the Gorakhpur detachment of the 17th was disarmed by Nepalese troops, and affairs began to assume a brighter appearance. But the Nepalese officers were averse to move their cholera-stricken forces. When this was once known, disorder again made head. On the 10th, local rebels, aided by a party from Oudh, plundered the Khalilabad tahsil; while on the same day the babu of Bakhira, an illegitimate descendant of the Bansi family, expelled the police from Bakhira station. Two days later the Captainganj tahsili was captured by insurgents who, for the first time, included Muhammad Hasan. Forty troopers of the irregular cavalry, who had been detached for the protection of the tahsili, here went over to the enemy. On the 13th matters were considered sufficiently threatening to justify the evacuation of the district. Its British officers and the Nepalese troops left together. But the joint magistrate, Mr. Bird, remained to supervise the labours of a committee of five rajas to whom the management of Gorakhpur and Basti had been entrusted. This assembly, of which the Bansi raja was a member, proved unable to maintain order. Another member, the Kausik raja of Gopalpur, tried in vain to restore the loyalty of his Gautam kinsmen in Nagar. So little, in truth, did his efforts succeed, that the uncle of the Nagar raja placed a guard over Mr. Bird's house. When that officer was at length forced to fly, the committee dissolved itself. On the following day Muhammad Hasan made his public entry into Gorakhpur, and rebel misrule was established."
"THE BOMBAY ACCOUNTS.
... correspondence and files of papers from Bombay to the 31st of August.
...
The 37th out of three companies lost three officers, Bagnal, Birkett, and Sale, and 61 men killed, and Captain Harrison and 23 men wounded. The 10th, out of 150 men, lost Captain Dunbar, killed, and had half their number placed hors de combat. Then the 12th Irregular Cavalry at Segowlie, near Goruckpore, broke out, murdered their commandant, Major Holmes, and his wife, and the doctor, and then moved down upon the Ganges, at first apparently for Chupra, a little above Dinapore, but then marched further up, alarming even Benares. The 65th Native Infantry, at Ghazeepore, is hardly to be expected to hold out in the midst of so much disaffection. ...
p295: "On the 28th of November Mr. Samuells strongly advised the reoccupation of Goruckpore. Troops could not immediately be spared for that duty but it was represented that the Nepal Brigade would be directed to proceed against Mahommed Hossein who had assumed the title of Nazim of Goruckpore. The abandonment of that district had been effected under peculiar circumstances. These circumstances are explained in the following letter dated August the 21st by Mr. H. C. Tucker, the Commissioner of Benares:
'His Honor will have learnt from my letter of the 21st August, that the Governor-General in Council authorised Mr. Wingfield, by orders of the llth instant, to retire upon Azimghur, with all the Civil and Military officers of Goruckpore, and the Goorkhas, should it be found impossible to divide the Goorkha force into two portions, one of which should remain at Goruckpore, while the other and stronger division should move on to Azimghur.
The Goorkha Commander positively refused to split his force unless a company of Europeans, and two guns, were sent to reinforce the Azimghur detachment. As this could not be done, the force could not be divided, and the officials were authorized under the letter of the Governor-General's instructions, in abandoning Goruckpore, and falling back on Azimghur.
I have already stated how strongly I disapproved of the abandonment of Goruckpore, at the time it was made, when there was no hope of the sacrifice of the district bringing any proportional benefit to General Havelock and Lucknow, as would have been the case had the healthy portion of the Goorkhas been rapidly pushed forward to Allahabad, as urged in my letters to Mr. Wynyard, and my address to the Supreme Government of the 5th instant. Messrs. Wynyard and Paterson have committed, in my opinion, an error of judgment, but, as they are borne out so far by the instructions of Government, I trust His Honor may be pleased to modify the fifth paragraph of the letter under acknowledgment. Mr. Paterson has already left for Calcutta, in anticipation of leave on sick certificate, which is separately transmitted. Mr. Wynyard is at his post, and though I have considered myself bound in duty, both to him and to Government, to transmit a copy of your letter to him, I have requested him to stand fast, and administer the civil duties of Azimghur and the Goorkha camp, until I receive the orders of Government upon this letter, and my address of the 21st instant.' ...
The letter was thus replied to through the Secretary to Government, Central Provinces:
'... From the papers in the possession of the Government it does not appear that the Goorkha Commander ever positively refused to divide his force, or even, in objecting to it, insisted upon the condition mentioned by Mr. Tucker. Both Mr. Wingfield and Captain Wroughton thought it would not be 'fair to the Nepalese troops to detach two regiments unsupported by guns, Cavalry or Europeans, to Azimghur, as that district lies so exposed to incursions from Oude, whence numberless guns, many of heavy calibre, can be brought against them;' but no such condition was urged by the Goorkha Commander, and the abandonment of the district cannot, therefore, be justified on this ground, even supposing that the conditional instructions of the Government of India dated the llth of August had been received before the abandonment took place, which is not the case.' "
"GHAZEEPORE, October 17, 1857.
Sir James Outram and General Havelock, after relieving Lucknow, found that they had only about 2000 men left who were fit for service; and as this number was too small to keep the enemy at arm's length, and at the same time to escort to safety the crowd of women and children, the Generals, it is believed, entrenched themselves and determined to wait for reinforcements. We hear that 3000 men left Cawnpore some days ago for Lucknow, so that by this time we must be 5000 strong in that quarter. I saw two men here who had just arrived from Bustee, an opium station 40 miles beyond Goruckpore; and they said that they had met on the road 500 of the mutineers flying from Lucknow to their homes, and that many of the villains were badly wounded. The evacuation of Goruckpore is considered here one of the most discreditable occurrences, on our side, that has taken place since the commencement of the rebellion. It was authorised by the Government, but, of course, the Government acted according to the information furnished by the officials, and on them the responsibility in reality rests. They abandoned one of the finest provinces in India; and thereby ruined many whose capital was invested in the district, left the native Christians at the mercy of the heathen, and subjected the refugees to great hardship and imminent danger; and this they did at a time when they had an ample force of Ghoorkhas (brave Highlanders from Nepaul) to enable them without difficulty to hold the territory. One of the consequences is that Maun Sing and some other rajahs, who treated Europeans with great kindness during their flight, furnishing them with quarters, food, clothes, or money, and sometimes with all these together, have been thrust into an attitude of rebellion in self-defence. When Government voluntarily abandoned Goruckpore, and warned all Europeans that they must no longer look for British protection, of course there were persons ready to take possession and triumph over the fall of the 'Feringhees,' as they call us. In order to protect their property from plunder or destruction, loyal rajahs were forced to join the rebels, and are in a false position, into which some of them, at least, have been most reluctantly driven.
...
The mutiny, however, has spent its strength, and the chief business of our troops will now be to hunt down and bring to justice, or exterminate, the scattered bands skulking in jungles. To hang these bloody-minded wretches by the hundred, is mercy to mankind. Strange to say, the 32d Native Infantry mutinied only a few days ago. It was one of the three or four regiments that remained armed and seemingly loyal. But not one of them ought to be trusted. The sooner they are disarmed and disbanded, or sent to China, the better. Sepoy is now another word for traitor. ...
It seems very strange to those on the spot to find the English newspapers insisting that the rebellion is national, and not merely military. There are, I understand, about 40,000 natives in Ghazeepore, and the whole number of Europeans, including the soldiers of the 37th Queen's and Artillery, does not come up to 300. The population has not been disarmed. What could 300 do against such odds? Some days ago there was a great Hindoo festival here. We passed through the crowd when taking our evening drive. There was such a multitude, that, if the heads of the people had been paving-stones, one might have walked on them. This extended over a large open common- perhaps over four or five acres. I just thought, as we passed with some difficulty through the mass, how easy it would be for such an assemblage to throw every European at the station neck and heels into the Ganges. There were a good many of us together, and we thought it prudent to be armed (as the natives are amazingly excited on such festive occasions), but they were as civil as possible, amking way for us as we passed. They were keeping the Doorga Pooja, a festival in hoour of Devi, the wife of Siva. For several days all business was suspended, and universal mirth and idleness reigned. A huge and hideous image, with its tongue lolling out of its mouth, had been set on fire just before I reached the ground.
p105: [events of 28 Jan 1858] "... we marched to Burhul [apparently a mistake for Burhuj, modern Barhaj], on the left bank of the Gogra, which was on the high road from Goruckpore to Benares; and some importance being attached to the keeping of the Ghat, there was a halt here for several days, until, by the advance of the Nepalese troops, by whom Goruckpore had lately been taken, after a feeble resistance, and with whom the Sarun field force was to act in concert, the insurgents were known to be entirely driven far to the westward. There was reason to suppose that four regiments of cavalry and 4000 infantry were at Fyzabad, not more than five or six marches distant, and therefore there was an additional reason for keeping a good look-out on this part of the river, boats being required for the construction of a bridge across the Gogra for Jung Bahadoor's army, which was marching to Lucknow.
The time occupied by these numerous halts was not altogether thrown away, as an opportunity was given to the magistrate to make arrangements for the re-organization of the police, and the settlement of the district, while at the same time punishment was inflicted on the refractory zemindars by the destruction of their houses, and in such other ways as was most suitable. This, it must be acknowledged, does not seem to be a very chivalrous method of bringing the delinquent to terms, savouring something of the Goth; but to the native of India it is a most severe punishment, and peculiarly humiliating, being regarded as a great disgrace, and serves to keep up a wholesome dread in the minds of others, lest a similar fate should befal themselves."
[Chapter 9 of this book contains details of the campaign which recaptured Basti and Nagar (spelled Nuggur) in April 1858]
For details of individual battles in the area, on what has become known as the Trans-Gogra Campaign, see the Families in British India Society website, Fibiwiki
p864: [quoted from the "Bengal Catholic Herald"]: "GORUCKPORE, Sept. 3rd.- 'The eastern part of the district has been invaded by a band of 500 sepoys ... The night before last a detachment of 150 Mudrassees of the 27th M.N.I., I have not learnt under whose command, were sent out to meet the mutineers.Our joint magistrate, Mr. Lumsden, has gone out with this party, accompanied by a few sowars. I was nearly omitting to mention that Mr. H. Wilson, the assistant magistrate, has proceeded to Bansee to relieve Mr. W. Peppe, hon. deputy magistrate, who returns to the station. ...' "
Before reading the story of the destruction of Mahua Dabar, you may also like to read some information about Mahua Dabar before 1857: A Significant Township.