Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/171

Rh Following the plan I have laid down on narrating in as close order as possible the contemporaneous events in the stations whose proximity rendered the action in one more or less dependent upon the action in the others, I propose to turn, for a short space, to Allahábád. That place, situated at the junction of the Ganges and the Jamnah, constituted the armed gate through which alone succours'from Calcutta could reach Kánhpur and Lakhnao. Should that gate be closed, or should it be occupied, the fate of both the places mentioned would have depended entirely on the result of the operations before Dehlí.

The fort of Allahábád, founded by Akbar in 1575, lies on a tongue of land formed by the confluence of the two great rivers above mentioned. It is 120 miles distant from Kánhpur, seventy-seven from Banáras, 564 by the railway route, and somewhat more by water from Calcutta. It touched the southern frontier of Oudh, and was in close proximity to the districts of Juánpur, Ázamgarh, and Gorákhpur, the landowners in which had been completely alienated from their British masters by the action of the land and revenue system introduced by Mr Thomason.

The news of the disasters at Mírath and Dehlí reached Allahábád on the 12th of May. The force there was entirely native, the garrison consisting of the 6th Regiment N. I. and a battery of native artillery. Additions to this purely native force were made early in the month of May. On the 9th a wing of the 'Regiment of Fíruzpur,' a Sikh regiment which had been raised on the morrow of the campaign of 1846, and on the 19th a squadron of the 3d Oudh Irregular Horse, also natives, reached the place. The bulk of these troops occupied a cantonment about two and a half miles from the fort, to which they furnished weekly guards. The commanding officer was the