Kanpur, 1857
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Nana Sahib's forces besiege Wheeler's entrenchment; the survivors are killed at Satichaura Ghat and the Bibighar, and Havelock retakes the city in July.
At Kanpur the Bengal regiments rose in early June and Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the last Peshwa, took their lead. General Wheeler's garrison and the European civilians held a poorly built entrenchment under fire for three weeks, then surrendered on a promise of safe passage by boat to Allahabad. On 27 June, at Satichaura Ghat, firing broke out as they embarked and most of the men were killed. About two hundred women and children held captive were killed at the Bibighar on 15 July, as Havelock's relief column approached; he beat Nana's army outside the city the next day and entered it on 17 July.
Kanpur hardened British opinion more than any other event of the war and was used to justify indiscriminate reprisals. Tatya Tope, Nana's commander, came back with the Gwalior contingent in November and briefly held most of the city.
Who gave the signal to fire at Satichaura has never been established, and whether Nana Sahib or his commanders planned it is disputed. By 1859 he had disappeared into Nepal; his fate is unknown.
- war
- colonial