Story of Cawnpore

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General Thomson wrote this book from memory solely to refute allegations made that the garrison at Cawnpore lacked courage to deal with the Sepoy Mutiny, which first broke out there. The author was one of the four to have escaped the massacre committed by the Nana and the Indian sepoys, and lived to tell the tale. Seeing the discontentment brewing among the native sepoys, in December 1856, Thomson's regiment was called from Cuttack to Cawnpore. The Company included more than a thousand Europeans. On 5 June 1857, on account of a rumour that Indian troops were to be massacred, it influenced the sepoys to rebel against the East India Company. Amidst the chaos, Nana Sahib, the Peshwa Emperor, arrived in Cawnpore, stating at first that he intended to support the British. However, he joined the rebels. The British were unprepared but despite it, held on valiantly for a long time, almost three weeks, in a makeshift fort, before they surrendered. Most of them died due to bombardment, cholera, dysentery and small-pox.

Capt. Mowbray Thomson was an officer in the British East India Com-pany. He was one of the handful of survivors in the Cawnpore siege with a remarkable tale to tell.

So many conflicting statements have been made respecting the sufferings endured by the unhappy victims of the Sepoy Mutiny, who were sacrificed at Cawnpore, that I have felt it incumbent upon me to present the following narrative of all that can recollect of the distressing history.

In some obscure journals, India, direct imputations have been made of the want of courage on the part of the defenders of the garrison. Justice to the dead has compelled me to refute these utterly false allegations.