Plan of Major-General Hugh Wheeler's entrenchments and surrounding buildings at Cawnpore, June 1857

From the working drawing by Private W Hull, King's Own Scottish Borderers.

Cawnpore was a major crossing point on the River Ganges, and an important junction, where the Grand Trunk Road and the road from Jhansi to Lucknow crossed. In June 1857, during the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859), the Bengal Army sepoys stationed there rebelled, looted the treasury and laid siege to Major-General Sir Hugh Wheeler's garrison. Wheeler retreated to a dry earthen entrenchment just outside the city.