General Wheelers Entrenchment at Cawnpore, 1858

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

Cawnpore (Kanpur), a strategic city on the River Ganges and Lucknow-Jhansi road, became the site of some of the uprising's most terrible deeds. The rebellion reached the city by June 1857 and under the command of Major-General Sir Hugh Wheeler (1789-1857) the British retreated to a fortified encampment where they endured a three-week siege in frightful conditions. When offered safe passage the British accepted, only for their soldiers to be massacred when confusion ensued as they tried to depart by boat. The women and children were captured but, when on 15 July news of the approach of a British relief force reached the city, they were butchered and thrown down a well.

Cawnpore was soon recaptured and the horrors of the massacre were revealed. More than anything else this deed inspired the terrible vengeance, which became known as 'The Devil's Wind' that the British wrought upon the Indian rebels.