The Battery near the Begum Kotee, Lucknow, 1858

Photograph by Felice Beato (1825-1907), Indian Mutiny (1857-1859), 1858.

The Begum Kotee (or Begum Kothi) palace complex was severely damaged during the Indian Mutiny. During Sir Colin Campbell's final capture of the city of Lucknow it was the scene of fierce fighting with around 600 rebels being killed there. Major William Stephen Raikes Hodson, the controversial founder of Hodson's Horse, was mortally wounded leading an attack there on 11 March 1858.