The Regiments

Nearly three-fourths of the Bengal Army was involved in the uprising. The following list can give the reader an idea of the scale of the event and how it led to the demise of some of the finest regiments the army had.

The 74 Regiments of Native Infantry

Full Regimental Title                                                  1857 and After

The Very Poor Odds

Approximately 311’000 men were serving in the various regiments and contingents across all three presidencies:

Bengal Army: ~135,000 to 160,000 native troops

Madras Army: ~50,000 to 60,000 native troops .

Bombay Army: ~40,000 to 50,000 native troops

Local Contingents & Princely Auxiliaries: ~40,000 men (such as the Gwalior Contingent and Hyderabad Contingent)

The figure of 40’160 British troops and 5,362 officers included not only the Queen’s Army but also European regiments raised in India, with European troops, such as the 1st Madras Fusiliers or the European Bengal Fusilier regiments.

Bengal Presidency: ~22,000 to 24,000 European troops, with the vast majority concentrated far to the northwest in the newly conquered Punjab region.

Bombay Presidency: ~9,000 to 10,000 European troops.

Madras Presidency: ~7,000 to 8,000 European troops.

When it finally came to a fight, the British would find themselves outnumber 7 to 1.

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^{Sources and Links:}

^{For the maps: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist151/India/maps.htm
For Regimental Information: https://wiki.fibis.org/}

^{Malleson, G. B. The Indian Mutiny of 1857. London: Seeley and Co., 1891.
Barr, Pat. The Memsahibs: The Women of Victorian India. London: Secker and Warburg, 1976
David, Julian Saul Markham. “The Bengal Army and the Outbreak of the Indian Mutiny.” PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2001. gla.ac.uk.
David, Saul. The Indian Mutiny: 1857. London: Viking, 2003.
Spilsbury, Julian. The Indian Mutiny. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007.}