The Little Siege of Arrah
The Siege of Arrah commenced on the 27th of July when the mutineers, instead of leaving Arrah after the usual plunder and prisoner-freeing spectacle, assembled themselves some 600 yards from the garrisoned house, in full view of the position and
“by the sound of a trumpet, and then moved down steadily towards us till they got within 200 yards, when their trumpets sounded a charge, and down they came at the double quick, shouting like demons, and firing as fast as they could.”
They were answered by the shots from well-handled double-barrelled guns and the carabines of the Sikhs. The shots told, and a few of the sepoys were knocked over; a few more shots and the greater part of this vastly superior force retreated into and behind Boyle’s house. Had they had the fortitude to do so, they could have kicked down the doors of the besieged garrison or scaled the walls and overwhelmed the men inside by sheer numbers. Instead, they moved back.
The daring of the besieged at Arrah shows what men can do when faced with the impossible and are willing to do everything to save their necks. Unlike soldiers, they approached their dilemma as engineers. Besides victuals, Boyle had had the foresight to lay in a stock of fuel, enough entrenching tools, some ball cartridges, gunpowder, and even lead to make more bullets, if required, to their stores.
The mutineers decided to solve the problem by bringing two bigger guns into play, and over the next few days, the garrison was amazed at just how terrible their cannonade was. Instead of dislodging the garrison at the first volley, from a gun barely 60 yards away, the other 150 yet, “the balls from the latter scarcely hit the house at all, but went over with a whizz and concussion that shook every part.” Even after they positioned one of the guns at 16 yards, by making a hole in the garden wall on the other side of the house, they were still unable to “penetrate the main walls, and only hit the loose bricks occasionally, which were not always beaten down, as we had strengthened them from within.” Inside the house, the bricked-up intervals cunningly fortified by Boyle were not hit more than a dozen times.
The 28th of July brought a creative idea of the sepoys into fruition – they decided if they could not cannonade them out, they would burn them out instead. Accordingly, they gathered up large piles of straw, bamboo, wood, fuel and anything else that would burn quickly, along with a great quantity of chilies, within a few hundred yards of the house. The smoke, though irritating and annoying and for a brief moment even suffocating, did nothing to the house itself; as the wind soon turned, the sepoys were left gasping and coughing at their own folly. Smoke did not work. Nor did pelting the house with heavy brass castors torn from by the mutineers from pianos, easy chairs and couches instead of actual ammunition for which they had to wait to receive a supply of.
On the fifth day of the siege, the mutineers hoisted one gun onto the roof of Boyle’s house – this could have been a problem had they been good shots. But they weren’t, and the cannon balls sailed over the heads of Boyle and the rest of the company, while Anderson, Boyle, Field and the other better marksmen continually sat on top of the house and blazed away at the artillery gunners. When the rebels raised a barricade on top of a house opposite, the garrison built theirs up in proportion. When shot was directed at the weakest point in the defences, the spot was immediately fortified and made stronger with whatever material they had to hand. The Sikhs too were men of fortitude and imagination – when hunger began to tell, they stole out of the house at night and stole four sheep from under the noses of the mutineers; when water began to run short, they dug a well eighteen feet deep within 12 hours – “The water running down on the outside of the house must have somewhat astonished our foes if they expected to reduce us by thirst.” When it was discovered, the mutineers had resolved to blow up the house through a mine; the Sikhs dug a countermine, putting an effective end to any thoughts of mining by the mutineers.
Four horses were shot by the mutineers – these had been tied up by Wake outside with the idea of using them to escape, should there be a chance – and these, as they decomposed caused the garrison considerable discomfort from the horrid smell; but the fortune favours the brave and the wind turned giving the sepoys a taste of their own doings. Inside, the defence carried on as usual. There was no stoic suffering at Arrah – only determination and obviously plenty of practicality. Three or four of the best shots were generally on the roof who were disciplined enough to weigh out an advantage by waiting until the enemy were within a hundred yards of the defences and then made every shot count. Together with the excellent Sikhs, the marksmen of Arrah were soon feared by the mutineers. Had the men at Arrah known that Dinapore had written them off they might have lost hope; fortunately, they had no news at all from that quarter.
Mutiny Reflections 
Fascinating. I must come back to read at leisure. My family lived in India for two centuries. Since the mid-1700’s to mid 20th century. My little sister and I were the last born there. On the Pakistan side, after the partition. Most of my ancestors were indigo planters. My great-grandfather worked for Scindia in Gwalior, after the Mutiny.
Thanks for your posts. I will be back.
Brian
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Thank you Brian!
I have a few posts about Gwalior and Scindia though it isn’t quite finished – I hope you find it interesting.
That is fascinating about your family! If there is anything you would like to share to my site in regards to your family, that would be thrilling. The site started originally to examine the people of the Indian Mutiny, it has however morphed into something rather larger than I expected. I try to find my way back to the original intent when I can; there is just so much history!
Indigo features quite often in the history of the Indian Mutiny. The planters were men made of quite stern stuff! They deserve a history of their own. I just finished reading the history of indigo factories in Bihar, very fascinating.
Thank you again and I hope you continue to find my writing interesting!
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Pleasure Eva. My great-grandmother was a Goutière. A family of Indigo planters near Calcutta. One of her nieces was Chritine Weston, née Goutière, born in India. She later became an American writer. Two of her novels, Indigo, and The Hoopoe are based on her childhood memories. I have all her books because though a generation “older”, she and her siblings were contemporaries of my father’s. Books might be available on Amazon though.
My father wrote a quite extensive family history, but it is inFrench. As strange as it may sound, we are French. I’ve been slowly translating the history into English, but I haven’t reached the India part yet. I will let you know.
And I will definitely come back to your Gwalior and Scindia posts and others…
🙏🏻
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That is fascinating! Out of curiousity, I quickly searched Goutière in FIBIS (Families In British India Society) and I came up with quite a few names in the basic search, Births, Deaths and Marriages in Azimghar, Gorrackpur, Dinapore and Benares, Beoree Factory Gorruckpore, Chandernagore, Lucknow, Kanpur, Unao…basically all over northern India and and Indian Army Reserve Officer, serving in 1918 in the
2-69th Punjabis, Delhi who had previously served with the 4th Dragoon Guards, Jan-Mar 1916. FIBIS records are most 19th and early 20th century. It is wonderful to find a family with French roots in India – it is not a widely researched and deserves more attention!
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Fascinating back. Thanks for the tip about FIBIS. My father did his research in the 70’s and 80’s. No Internet then. All written sources.
The French roots come from the French “counters” in India that we kept after Dupleix “lost” India to the Brits… Our “Indian” roots go back to Chandernagor. My Goutière great-gradnmother married a French Gentleman named Henri-Felix Onraet. The one who worked for Scindia. He was “Sarsubar”, chief of police or something like that. (I think the English liked to have “Europeans at key positions with the Indian princes after the Mutiny. His son Franck Onraet was later “head of hunts” for Scindia. He appears on several photos with the Prince of Wales (Later George V) on a tiger hunt.
The Onraets go back to Chandernagor where arrived during the French Revolution and married a Marie-Rose de Solminhac de Chaunes whose father, I believe, was Captain of the port of Pondichéry… (Can’t remember the current name of the city…)
I will definitely look up FIBIS. Thank you.
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Very interesting! The British liked having their people in princely courts even before the mutiny, they were called Residents. In the case of Scindia of Gwalior, they were also European officers present in the Gwalior Contingent and often Europeans, many French for that matter were found to be in the employ of princely states as private officers. There is even a case of some beheadings for refusing to fight against the British in the Maharatta Wars.
Another family who were in the employ of the Oudh court for generations were the Orr family, the last being Alexander Orr. Their father and grandfather had been employed in various positions in the Oudh court, from the military to librarians until the annexation in 1856.
Keeping Europeans in the princely courts carried on in a greater or lesser degree until independence in 1947 and the posts were coveted for many reasons, besides being an ideal jumping board for higher political positions.
All this information from you is really making me more and more curious about the French in India. There were in all 5 French colonies in India Pondicherry, Karaikal in Tamil Nadu and Yanaon in Andhra Pradesh on the Coromandel Coast, Mahe in Kerala on the Malabar Coast and Chandernagore in West Bengal. A wealth of history to be explored!
If you like I can look through my books and see if I have anything more detailed regarding Scindia’s court, indigo factories and French India?
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Beheadings? Hmmm. Those were dangerous times. I know my father wrote about the mutiny based on books and other sources he had access to.
I will see wether there is any reference to Mr. Orr in his writings.
My great-grandfather, Henry-Felix Onraet and all his family survived the Mutiny because they lived around Calcutta maybe? Again I have to look.
Henry-Felix was Scindia’s “sarsubar” whatever that means. I understand he fought and defeated the Dacoïts in Gwalior.
And yes, there were 5 counters in India. A lot of history to explore. Interestingly, in the case of my family they remained French. Signing up the children at Chandernagor every few years. Though the last generation had double nationality. (And were bilingual). My great-uncle René Onraët was born in Agra and eventually moved to Singapore, where he became Chief of Special Branch before WWII.
If you have time, and documents on Scindia, that would be lovely. There were many photos of the court in the family but the last cousin who had them died and I don’t know where those pictures are. What a loss.
I need to gather some material to send you.
I shall. In due time.
‘Best
Brian
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I have found some traces of the Onraet family in Bihar as well – it was a district well known for indigo and for opium; I don’t know if Narainpore factory which was in or around Bhagalpur and was the abode of a P.T. Onraet in 1837 would be familiar? According to the history of the Bihar Indigo factories, there were some 300 people in Bihar directly involved with indigo in 1857 so it was fairly full of planters and their families.
Besides the occaisional panic Calcutta remained untouched by the mutiny directly and Chandernagore does not feature in any particular way unless one includes the dealings of one Mr La Font who was looking for a way to gain support of Nana Sahib of Kanpur infamy to help him overthrow the British! Nothing came of that, especially when the French realised that the overthrow of the British would very likely mean their own demise shortly after. In Calcutta the French merchants were among the first to send their offer of arming volunteers and putting them at the disposal of Canning’s goverment. They and all the others (Americans, Germans, Armenians. Italians..) were refused until Canning had no choice but to finally to accept their offers.
I also found an puzzling entry in FIBIS which reads: P. Onraet, 1797, District of Residence: Zillah of Nuddea, Place of Residence: Neemtollah, Employment: Iindigo Planter, Year Arrive India:1797, Authority to reside: Captured in a Ship. At the time of the entry he had been in the district 1 year. I am not sure what the captured in a ship is all about!
https://fibis.ourarchives.online/bin/aps_detail.php?id=930568
I even found an Onraet in my old home of Dhaka, Bangladesh. When I return to India next year, I shall certainly keep an eye out for all the surnames on your family tree when I go through the graveyards on my rather long list of places to visit!
I will send what I an about Gwalior as soon as I can. Best wishes, Eva
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Hi Eva, thank you so much for spending the time.
P.T. Onraet would be Pierre-Thomas, my great-great grandfather. I will check next week my father’s notes on him. I seem to remember very little is known about him.
And P. Onraet was his father. He’s the one who sailed to India from France during the French Revolution. Though according to our records, he arrived in 1794… I’ll look your link up. “Captured in a ship”. The story my grandmother told was that they were two brothers who were set prisonners by the English on a pontoon, if you remember those demasted ships the English used on the Channel during the Napoleonic wars. But my parents’ research sort of contradicted that family story. Maybe he sailed on a French ship to Chandernagor and was captured on arrival? I know there was frequent squabble between the English and the French at Chandernagor, so maybe it was one of those.
And aas for an Onraet in Dacca it’s possible. My great-grandfather had several brothers. One ran a steamer on the Hooglie. The others I don’t know. One may possibly have “moved” to Dacca. (That was the old spelling of Dhaka, right? I get confused with Mumbay, Kolkatta and others…)
Cheers
Brian
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You are most welcome! I find family stories fascinating and sometimes I can get quite stuck in histories. Yours is very interesting, and I am sure there is so much to find out. FIBIS is a good place to start. All the data is transribed by volunteers, I still do a bit on there from time to time and the people there are very helpful especially when it comes to deeper research. I have never used this site: http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr/ but apparently it has a searchable section on French overseas territories.
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Volunteers? You don’t say? Maybe that’s why 1794 came out as 1797? I have to check my father’s sources…
And you volunteer too? Compliments.
I’ll check your link to the Archives in “Frog”.
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Just been there. As a typical public French site it might be a bit complicated… I need to spend a little time finding my way around. Thanks for the tip anyway.
have a great week… 🙏🏻
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Just went to your link. That Fibis is quite amazing. My parents would have been delighted to have such tools at hand. Thanks for the tip.
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