The Second Relief of Arrah
While Lloyd and others were ready to give up the men at Arrah for dead, others were not so quick to accept defeat.
There was in the EICo’s army Brevet-Major Vincent Eyre of the Bengal Artillery. As a subaltern, he had shared in the disastrous flight from Kabul and had been imprisoned with Lady Sale. He had come through this ordeal and had gone on to organise and command the new Gwalior Contingent. Early 1857 found him in Burma with nothing but a company of European gunners and a horse field battery of 6 guns. The mutiny recalled him to India, and amid the Calcutta panic on the 14th of June, Eyre stepped off the boat at the ghats. He would have to cool his heels in Calcutta for nearly a month while the heads of state tried to figure out where best to send him with his men.
On the 10th of July, the battery embarked on a river flat and was tugged up to the Ganges; their objective was Allahabad. On the 25th of July, as fate would have it, the steamer found itself approaching Dinapore. Eyre had grimly watched the mutiny take place and observed the flight of the regiments from the station – with some determination, he ordered the steamer to dock at Dinapore and upon landing, he offered his services to Lloyd.
Lloyd accepted the loan of three guns for the night, but the very next day, they were re-embarked with instructions to proceed to Ghazipore. Between Dinapore and Ghazipore lies the station of Buxar with no Sepoy regiments or European troops, but it was the home of the breeding studs of the EICo – an extensive establishment but completely unprotected. Landing in Buxar, Eyre heard of the Dinapore mutineers who had crossed the Son River and were marching on Arrah. He now fixed it in his mind he would rescue the garrison.
Of course, his company of artillery was not nearly enough to face three regiments of armed sepoys, so Eyre determined to proceed to Ghazipore and “borrow or barter” as many European troops as he could. At Ghazipore, he procured a small party of 78th Highlanders in exchange for his only subaltern, two guns and an appropriate compliment of gunners; he then proceeded back to Buxar, where he picked up a few enthusiastic officers who offered their services as volunteers. His only problem now was the captain of the steamer whose orders had been to go to Allahabad. He would be obliged for every day’s delay to pay the government a fine, and Eyre’s pirating was starting to get very expensive. Eyre promptly stepped forward and offered to take the responsibility, thus placing the captain and the crew at his disposal. From Buxar, he sent an official document to Calcutta to this effect – by the time it was received, Eyre expected to be victorious.
At Buxar, he found to his delight 160 men of H.M.’s 5th Fusiliers under Captain L’Estrange. Eager as he was to please Eyre, L’Estrange was equally unwilling to displease the Government – again, Eyre stepped forward. He addressed a public letter to L’Estrange ordering him to place the 5th Fusiliers at his disposal and prepare to march on Arrah.
It would take until the 30th of July for Eyre to be ready to move – he had had to leave his horses in Burma and now fell back to using bullocks to draw his guns. The ammunition he placed in carts; regretfully he had to send the Highlanders back to Ghazipore – they were sorely needed at that station and not for galavanting in what seemed to be a fruitless venture. He now had 150 men of the 5th Fusiliers, fourteen mounted Volunteers, thirty-four artillery men and three guns. He appointed Captain Hastings staff officer of the force and took on Lieutenant Jackson of the stud as a volunteer.
Eyre then reported to General Lloyd what he intended to do and straightaway proceeded to do it, “leaving the sanction of higher authority to follow after him, or not to come at all, as the case might be.”
On the 2nd of August, he was given the opportunity to try out his newly assembled force when they came upon the mutineers and, Eyre having learned what had befallen Dunbar, was aware of the possibility of another ambush. The rebels sounded the familiar call of “Assembly” from a grove of trees in front of Eyre’s force and intended, by extending themselves on both sides, to outflank and surround his men. Eyre drew up his force and took the fight to the enemy instead.
To his advantage, besides it still being daylight, he had artillery, and his infantry was armed with the new Enfield rifles, while the mutineers still had the Brown Bess. They also did not have a Vincent Eyre to lead them.
Sheltered as the mutineers were by a grove of trees, Eyre directed the fire of his guns straight into the mutineers, and then, sending the skirmishers of the 5th Fusiliers forward, he was able to cause a panic in their ranks and forced them to retreat. Profiting by their sudden disorganisation, Eyre concentrated all his fire at their centre, thus clearing the way and bringing up the rear with all his baggage.
The mutineers had destroyed the only bridge of the river which now intersected Eyre’s road. He had no boats, nor could he ford the river, so he was forced to make a flank movement which brought him not only clear of the river but onto the unfinished railway works which led straight into Arrah. Here, the sepoy regiments marched down the opposite side of the river, anticipating they could intercept Eyre, while Kunwar Singh came up behind him.
Eyre once again drew up his force and, from his position on the railway line, fired into the enemy. They had understood from the first encounter that they were no match for his guns, so they speedily took shelter in another grove of trees from which they could pour a most terrible fire on Eyre’s men. Having left his subaltern at Ghazipore, Eyre was compelled to direct the guns himself while still directing the operations of his force. For a brief moment, he left the guns to lead the infantry. The sepoys made a rush on the battery but were quickly driven back by a horrendous shower of grapeshot. What Eyre did not have, however, was numbers, and as the casualties mounted, it became clear that unless he charged, there would soon be nothing left of his force. When Captain Hastings brought the news that the 5th Fusiliers were faltering, Eyre ordered a bayonet charge.
“With the utmost alacrity, Hastings carried back the order to the Commander of the Infantry; but not immediately finding L’Estrange, who was in another part of the field, and seeing that there was no time to be lost, he ” collected every available man,” placed himself at their head, and issued the stirring order to charge. L’Estrange, meanwhile, had come up with another body of Fusiliers, and the whole, sending up as they went a right good English cheer, cleared the stream, which at this point had tapered down to the breadth of a few feet, and charged the surprised and panic-stricken multitude of Sepoys. It was nothing that they had our numbers twenty times told. They turned and fled in confusion before the British bayoneteers whilst Eyre poured in his grape, round after round, upon the flying masses. The rout was complete. They never rallied. And the road to Arrah was left as clear as though there had been no mutiny at Dinapore — no revolt in Behar.”
With one more river to cross, Eyre ordered filled with bricks from the railway works to fashion a bridge. “To span the stream with a bridge of masonry in a single night was an effort beyond the reach of human power. But by casting large numbers of bricks into the nullah, they so narrowed the extent of water to be passed that by the help of the country carts, which they had brought with them, they formed a wooden bridge, across which the guns and the baggage were conveyed in safety…” The next morning, Vincent Eyre marched victorious into Arrah. It was the 3rd of August, and he found the garrison battered but alive.
Wake would put their survival down to “nothing but cowardice, want of unanimity, and only ignorance of our enemies prevented our fortification being brought down around our ears.”
And he was probably right.
Sources:
Cochrane, J., comp. Narrative of the Indian Mutinies of 1857, Compiled for the Madras Military Male Orphan Asylum. Text prepared by William Thomas. Madras: Military Male Orphan Asylum Press, 1858.
Great Britain Parliament. Appendix (A) to Further Papers (No. 5) Relative to the Mutinies in the East Indies. London: Harrison and Sons, 1857.
Halls, John James. Two Months in Arrah in 1857. London: Longman, Green, Longman, & Roberts, 1860.
Malleson, G. B. The Indian Mutiny of 1857. London: Seeley and Co., 1891.
Sieveking, I. Giberne. A Turning Point in the Indian Mutiny. London: David Nutt, 1910.
Tayler, William. 38 Years in India. Vol. II. London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1882.
Tayler, William. Brief Narrative of Events Connected with the Removal of W. Tayler from the Commissionership of Patna. Calcutta: Privately printed, 1858.
Tayler, William. The Patna Crisis; or, Three Months at Patna During the Insurrection of 1857. London: James Nisbet and Co., 1858.
Wilson, Minden. History of the Behar Indigo Factories; Reminiscences of Behar; Tirhoot and Its Inhabitants of the Past; History of Behar Light Horse Volunteers. Calcutta: Calcutta General Printing Co., 1908.
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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