Document+B+British+Soldiers


 * Document B British Soldiers **

Recent scholarship has emphasized atrocities committed during the Sepoy Rebellion on both the sides of the British and the Indians. The primary sources below detail some of these acts.

British General Sir Henry Lawrence stated in August of 1857, “we have killed and drowned 500 out of the 600…men of the regiment.”[|[1]]

Another British officer wrote in a letter:

“Every native that appeared in sight was shot down without question, and in the morning Colonel Neill sent out parties of regiment…and burned all the villages near where the ruins of our bungalows stood, and hung every native that they could catch, on the trees that lined the road.”[|[2]]

Sergeant David McAusland of the 42nd regiment during the Rebellion noted that “three scaffolds and six whipping posts stood outside of the town alongside of the jail and there [took place] executions to the number of six every day.” A judge of the trials whose wife had been killed in the revolt told Sergeant McAusland, “if ever I get the change of [judging] these Black rebels I will hang a man for every hair that was in my wife’s head.”[|[3]] Click here to return to the British Soldiers & Wives Main Page.

[|[1]] Streets, H. (2001). The rebellion of 1857: Origins, consequences, and themes. //Teaching// // South Asia: An internet journal of pedagogy //, //1//, 85-104. Retrieved from [|http://QL-VgQtecy4.pdf]. p.97.

[|[2]] Streets p. 98.

[|[3]] Streets p.98