The Siege of Delhi

In Delhi on 21 September 1857 emperor Bahadur Shah, a prisoner of the English, sat on a Charpoy in the verandah of the house, formerly the residence of Begum Samroo. A few miles away in the centre of the Chandani Chowk, outside the Kotwal’s residence, the bullet ridden bodies of his two sons, stripped, save a rag around the loins, lay naked on the stone slabs. These were the end results of the historic siege of Delhi which marked a turning point in the great Mutiny of 1857. It is not much to say that the British success which followed the subsequent operations down country was due mainly to the fact that the mutiny had clearly received a crushing blow by the captures of the great city of rebellion. This book which contains one of the most detailed and graphic narrations of the great siege by an author who was at once a participant and witness of the events, it describes, is an invaluable addition to the literature on the great revolt.