FieldMarshal Sir Donald Stewart Author:Donald Stewart Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE MUTINY AT ALIGURH It is strange that in no letter which has survived does Donald Stewart indicate that he had any foreboding of the tremend... more »ous upheaval which was to take place in India during the fateful year 1857. Since the march of his regiment from Peshawur, the life of the quarter-master had been uneventful. The usual routine of drill and parades went on—and social life in a small, dull, up-country station continued quiet and same from day to day. We find no mention of the flashes of unrest amongst troops in lower Bengal which presaged the coming storm ; but in the chain of letters are many missing links, especially during the early months of 1857—and those links may possibly have contained the notes of alarm for which search has been fruitless. However that may be, when the great mutiny broke out, Stewart found himself nearly in the centre of the storm. Aligurh lies about 80 miles S.E. from Delhi, and 55 N.E. from Agra. A detachment of the regiment was at Bulundshahr—40 miles to the north of Aligurh ; another at Etawah, 70 miles southeast of Agra; and a third at Mainpuri, between Futehgurh and Etawah. The Qth Native Infantry was famous for its discipline. The officers were popular, and the men hitherto had given no sign of disloyalty. For some days after the outbreak at Meerut, it was hoped that, notwithstanding the neighbouring contagion, the regiment would stand fast to its allegiance. The native officers were profuse in protestations of loyalty. They arrested and disarmed several rebel Sepoys who were making off for their homes, and they handed up to the authorities a regimental pundit, who had been tampering with the regiment's loyalty. He was tried by a court-martial of Europeans and natives, convicted, and on 2oth May hanged. Stewart, as i...« less