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Battle of Fatehpur
July 12It may be recalled that General Havelock had left Allahabad in the evening of July 7. In the mean time, the British had dispatched an advance force under Major Sydenham Renaud. General Havelock met up with the advance force at 2 AM on July 12. At the time they were four miles short of Fatehpur.
A little later, when the British troops had settled down for their breakfast, a 24 pound shell fell into their camp. At about the same time, the troopers of the rebellious 2nd Light Cavalry were also seen approaching the camp.. Abandoning their breakfast, the British troops retaliated and there was a brief skirmish. Unfortunately we had to retreat out of Fatehback.
Actually, we had expected to face only a small detachment of the advance guard but were taken by surprise at having to face the combined army of Major Sydenham Renaud and
General Havelock.
We probably outnumbered the British forces, but in this battle field, its not about numbers. If sheer numbers mattered, we wouldn’t even be in this positiion.
One of the reasons why the British won the day was because of their Enfield rifles and cannons. The Enfield rifle is far more effective than our smooth bore muskets.
This is a picture of our smooth bore Enfield musket. Click on it to see it in its full glory.
We have already told you so much about the Enfield Rifle.
Besides on the side of the sepoy’s, only the cavalry fought well.
After the battle, the town of Fatehpur was sacked by the Europeans, Sikhs and camp followers, some of the principal houses were blown up and thatched houses burnt.
In this battle, the sepoys were commanded by Jwala Prasad, one of Nana Sahib’s chief advisor and a military leader, now elevated to the rank of Brigadier. Jwala Prasad had underestimated the strength of the British army.
Hope Havelock doesn’t think he is invincible.
Superior weapon system & better organization : very hard to beat that.
I think the tide turned because of the introduction of “rule changing” arms in the conflict.
Even in Mysore, Tipu sultan won because he used primitive rockets to blow up an ammunition depot.
Rifle could filre much longer range than muscat can!
The source of Enfield musket was the British army, right. Nana or anybody else didn’t have a new source of getting the weapons.
Better discipline, better organisation, the team work ,the leadership provided by the officers , the tenacity of purpose, love for their motherland —– all these acted in favour of the British. I think the most important aspect was discipline and inspiring leadership —- qualities we sadly lack even today..
As regards Deep’s comments it may be placed on record that much has been made out about the superiority of Enfield rifle as compared to Brown Bess muskets of the sepoys. But Enfields too were problematic. In this connection , the observations of Sir Hugh Rose , Commander of the Central India Field Force (later Lord Strathnairn) and a future Commander-in-Chief of India)is worth quoting “The Enfield rifles had made up a good deal for my inferiority in numbers, that advantage however no longer existed. The heat and other causes had such an effect on the ammunition of the rifles that , their loading becoming difficult, and their fire uncertauin , the men lost confidence in their arms.”
Nana’s forces were using whatever weapons swere available in the local magazine at Kanpur.
Do not forget that the spark that set India alight was the Enfield Rifles ‘unclean’ cartridges. How could the sepoys and sowars use these defiling weapons in the cause of freedom when they refused to use them because of reasons of religion in the service of the EIC?
FJ,, do you think Sepoys kept importing the cartridges from England during the mutiny? The whole process of cartridge making was brought in-house. The record is replete with references to payments for gunpowder and metal peas and labor to make cartridges locally. And they were CLEAN cartridges, no pork or beef tallow used, and were made by local craftsman.
In fact, over the next few months, when I get a chance, I will post a video of how to make cartridges at home using home tools and use the oil used in Diyas (small lamps) to lubricate them.
I look forward to watching the video. From what I read, even the paper was viewed with suspicion before May 1857, or was that just another means of fomenting rebellion? If the means were available for the sepoys to make these cartridges, why weren’t they used in greater numbers? How would any sepoy know that another sepoys cartridges were clean or unclean? Wouldn’t he run the risk of being an outcaste? I read that the vast majority of the sepoys remained armed with the Brown Bess musket, as had been used for decades and due to its shorter range was at a distinct disadvantage in battle. Do you have a video of how to load and prime an Enfield?
At the buildup to the Mutiny there were a number of unfounded rumours circulating amongst the sepoys about the British forcing ‘unclean’ practices upon them. For example, it was believed that the British mixed cow and pig bones into the sepoys’ flour.
Upon hearing of the sepoys’ intense distrust of the new pre-greased cartiridges, some commanders requisitioned ungreased cartridges and allowed the sepoys to grease them themselves. However, other commanders were disheartened and enraged at the sepoys’ lack of trust and demanded that they use the pre greased ones. This lead to the disobeying of orders at Meerut which in turn lead to the start of the Mutiny.
There was a limited amount of the Enfield .577 cartridge sent out from England for field trials. Most if not all of the Infantry units being equipped with the new rifle at this early stage were European and thus they were supplied with the new greased cartridge. The remaining cartridge samples were returned to England and assized as being suitable for mass production and export to India and use by the Company’s army. The E.I.C’s army was massive and it would have been difficult to acquire sufficient tallow to grease all the cartridges the arsenals required and allowance would have been made for the improvisiation of suitable alternatve grease. Those cartridges made in England would have been served out to the European troops in India who had no qualm about the nature of the grease and the Sephai would make their own grease to lubricate the cartridge which were made by their own hands in the arsenals in India.
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