ABSTRACT
The city of Lucknow, of 300,000 inhabitants, 42 miles north-east of Cawnpur, stands on the right or south bank of the Gumti River. A number of palatial buildings and the cantonment stood between the river and the city, which covered 3 miles by 2 miles of ground. Captain Gould Weston, commanding the Mounted police, hearing after nightfall on June 11, 1857 that his men were about to mutiny, rode with his orderly to the lines and endeavoured to restrain them; but they galloped off in the dark on the Cawnpur road. Next morning Weston was in the Judge’s office when he heard that the 3rd Battalion Oudh Military police, 800 strong, had risen, and marched southwards. The European soldiers, as happened on many other occasions during the suppression of the Mutiny had gone into action without breakfast, and several sank down from sunstroke or exhaustion.
