'Havelock's Column attacking the Mutineers before Cawnpore'

Steel engraving by an unknown artist, 1857. Published by The London Printing and Publishing Company Limited, 1860 (c).

Major-General Sir Henry Havelock's relief force reached Cawnpore on 16 July 1857. They were too late to prevent one of the most notorious massacres of the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859), when Nana Sahib's men killed 120 British women and children. After carrying out indiscriminate reprisals against both the guilty and innocent inhabitants of Cawnpore, Havelock's force marched northwards across Oudh towards the besieged Residency at Lucknow.