title: Mark Antony

text: With Publius Ventidius Bassus returned to Rome in triumph for his defensive campaign against the Parthians, Antony appointed Gaius Sosius as the new governor of Syria and Cilicia in early 38 BC. Antony, still in the West negotiating with Octavian, ordered Sosius to depose Antigonus, who had been installed in the recent Parthian invasion as the ruler of Hasmonean Judea, and to make Herod the new Roman client king in the region. Years before in 40 BC, the Roman senate had proclaimed Herod "King of the Jews" because Herod had been a loyal supporter of Hyrcanus II, Rome's previous client king before the Parthian invasion, and was from a family with long standing connections to Rome. The Romans hoped to use Herod as a bulwark against the Parthians in the coming campaign.


title: Mark Antony

text: Advancing south, Sosius captured the island-city of Aradus on the coast of Phoenicia by the end of 38 BC. The following year, the Romans besieged Jerusalem. After a forty-day siege, the Roman soldiers stormed the city and, despite Herod's pleas for restraint, acted without mercy, pillaging and killing all in their path, prompting Herod to complain to Antony. Herod finally resorted to bribing Sosius and his troops in order that they would not leave him "king of a desert". Antigonus was forced to surrender to Sosius, and was sent to Antony for the triumphal procession in Rome. Herod, however, fearing that Antigonus would win backing in Rome, bribed Antony to execute Antigonus. Antony, who recognized that Antigonus would remain a permanent threat to Herod, ordered him beheaded in Antioch. Now secure on his throne, Herod would rule the Herodian Kingdom until his death in 4 BC, and would be an ever-faithful client king of Rome.


title: Mark Antony

text: With the Triumvirate renewed in 38 BC, Antony returned to Athens in the winter with his new wife Octavia, the sister of Octavian. With the assassination of the Parthian king Orodes II by his son Phraates IV, who then seized the Parthian throne, in late 38 BC, Antony prepared to invade Parthia himself.


title: Mark Antony

text: Antony, however, realized Octavian had no intention of sending him the additional legions he had promised under the Treaty of Tarentum. To supplement his own armies, Antony instead looked to Rome's principal vassal in the East: his lover Cleopatra. In addition to significant financial resources, Cleopatra's backing of his Parthian campaign allowed Antony to amass the largest army Rome had ever assembled in the East. Wintering in Antioch during 37, Antony's combined Roman–Egyptian army numbered some 200,000, including sixteen legions (approximately 160,000 soldiers) plus an additional 40,000 auxiliaries. Such a force was twice the size of Marcus Licinius Crassus's army from his failed Parthian invasion of 53 BC and three times those of Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Lucius Cornelius Sulla during the Mithridatic Wars. The size of his army indicated Antony's intention to conquer Parthia, or at least receive its submission by capturing the Parthian capital of Ecbatana. Antony's rear was protected by Rome's client kingdoms in Anatolia, Syria, and Judea, while the client kingdoms of Cappadocia, Pontus, and Commagene would provide supplies along the march.


title: Mark Antony

text: Antony's first target for his invasion was the Kingdom of Armenia. Ruled by King Artavasdes II of Armenia, Armenia had been an ally of Rome since the defeat of Tigranes the Great by Pompey the Great in 66 BC during the Third Mithridatic War. However, following Marcus Licinius Crassus's defeat at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, Armenia was forced into an alliance with Parthia due to Rome's weakened position in the East. Antony dispatched Publius Canidius Crassus to Armenia, receiving Artavasdes II's surrender without opposition. Canidius then led an invasion into the South Caucasus, subduing Iberia. There, Canidius forced the Iberian King Pharnavaz II into an alliance against Zober, king of neighboring Albania, subduing the kingdom and reducing it to a Roman protectorate.


title: Mark Antony

text: With Armenia and the Caucasus secured, Antony marched south, crossing into the Parthian province of Media Atropatene. Though Antony desired a pitched battle, the Parthians would not engage, allowing Antony to march deep into Parthian territory by mid-August of 36 BC. This forced Antony to leave his logistics train in the care of two legions (approximately 10,000 soldiers), which was then attacked and completely destroyed by the Parthian army before Antony could rescue them. Though the Armenian King Artavasdes II and his cavalry were present during the massacre, they did not intervene. Despite the ambush, Antony continued the campaign. However, Antony was soon forced to retreat in mid-October after a failed two-month siege of the provincial capital.


title: Mark Antony

text: The retreat soon proved a disaster as Antony's demoralized army faced increasing supply difficulties in the mountainous terrain during winter while constantly being harassed by the Parthian army. According to the Greek historian Plutarch, eighteen battles were fought between the retreating Romans and the Parthians during the month-long march back to Armenia, with approximately 20,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry dying during the retreat alone. Once in Armenia, Antony quickly marched back to Syria to protect his interests there by late 36 BC, losing an additional 8,000 soldiers along the way. In all, two-fifths of his original army (some 80,000 men) had died during his failed campaign.


title: Mark Antony

text: Meanwhile, in Rome, the triumvirate was no more. Octavian forced Lepidus to resign after the older triumvir attempted to take control of Sicily after the defeat of Sextus. Now in sole power, Octavian was occupied in wooing the traditional Republican aristocracy to his side. He married Livia and started to attack Antony in order to raise himself to power. He argued that Antony was a man of low morals to have left his faithful wife abandoned in Rome with the children to be with the promiscuous queen of Egypt. Antony was accused of everything, but most of all, of "going native", an unforgivable crime to the proud Romans. Several times Antony was summoned to Rome, but remained in Alexandria with Cleopatra.


title: Mark Antony

text: Again with Egyptian money, Antony invaded Armenia, this time successfully. In the return, a mock Roman triumph was celebrated in the streets of Alexandria. The parade through the city was a pastiche of Rome's most important military celebration. For the finale, the whole city was summoned to hear a very important political statement. Surrounded by Cleopatra and her children, Antony ended his alliance with Octavian.


title: Mark Antony

text: He distributed kingdoms among his children: Alexander Helios was named king of Armenia, Media and Parthia (territories which were not for the most part under the control of Rome), his twin Cleopatra Selene got Cyrenaica and Libya, and the young Ptolemy Philadelphus was awarded Syria and Cilicia. As for Cleopatra, she was proclaimed Queen of Kings and Queen of Egypt, to rule with Caesarion (Ptolemy XV Caesar, son of Cleopatra by Julius Caesar), King of Kings and King of Egypt. Most important of all, Caesarion was declared legitimate son and heir of Caesar. These proclamations were known as the "Donations of Alexandria" and caused a fatal breach in Antony's relations with Rome.


title: Mark Antony

text: While the distribution of nations among Cleopatra's children was hardly a conciliatory gesture, it did not pose an immediate threat to Octavian's political position. Far more dangerous was the acknowledgment of Caesarion as legitimate and heir to Caesar's name. Octavian's base of power was his link with Caesar through adoption, which granted him much-needed popularity and loyalty of the legions. To see this convenient situation attacked by a child borne by the richest woman in the world was something Octavian could not accept. The triumvirate expired on the last day of 33 BC and was not renewed. Another civil war was beginning.


title: Mark Antony

text: During 33 and 32 BC, a propaganda war was fought in the political arena of Rome, with accusations flying between sides. Antony (in Egypt) divorced Octavia and accused Octavian of being a social upstart, of usurping power, and of forging the adoption papers by Caesar. Octavian responded with treason charges: of illegally keeping provinces that should be given to other men by lots, as was Rome's tradition, and of starting wars against foreign nations (Armenia and Parthia) without the consent of the senate.


title: Mark Antony

text: Antony was also held responsible for Sextus Pompey's execution without a trial. In 32 BC, the senate deprived him of his powers and declared war against Cleopatra – not Antony, because Octavian had no wish to advertise his role in perpetuating Rome's internecine bloodshed. Octavian and other Roman Senators believed that turning the hostilities towards Cleopatra as the villain would gather the most support from Romans for war. Along with years of propaganda against Cleopatra being published by the Romans dating back to the days of Julius Caesar; Octavian also raided the Temple of Vesta to read Marc Antony's will. This will, which we do not know if it was real, described Antony's love and support for Cleopatra. This was used as a political weapon for Rome to declare war against Cleopatra and Egypt as a whole. This was the perfect summation of their attacks on the woman Antony loved and they believed threatened their republic.Will of Marc Antony Both consuls, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius, and a third of the senate abandoned Rome to meet Antony and Cleopatra in Greece.


title: Mark Antony

text: In 31 BC, the war started. Octavian's general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa captured the Greek city and naval port of Methone, loyal to Antony. The enormous popularity of Octavian with the legions secured the defection of the provinces of Cyrenaica and Greece to his side. On 2 September, the naval Battle of Actium took place. Antony and Cleopatra's navy was overwhelmed, and they were forced to escape to Egypt with 60 ships.


title: Mark Antony

text: Octavian, now close to absolute power, invaded Egypt in August, 30 BC, assisted by Agrippa. With no other refuge to escape to, Antony stabbed himself with his sword in the mistaken belief that Cleopatra had already done so. When he found out that Cleopatra was still alive, his friends brought him to Cleopatra's monument in which she was hiding, and he died in her arms.


title: Mark Antony

text: Cleopatra was allowed to conduct Antony's burial rites after she had been captured by Octavian. Realising that she was destined for Octavian's triumph in Rome, she made several attempts to take her life and finally succeeded in mid-August. Octavian had Caesarion and Antyllus killed, but he spared Iullus as well as Antony's children by Cleopatra, who were paraded through the streets of Rome.


title: Mark Antony

text: Cicero's son, Cicero Minor, announced Antony's death to the senate. Antony's honours were revoked and his statues removed, but he was not subject to a complete damnatio memoriae. Cicero Minor also made a decree that no member of the Antonii would ever bear the name Marcus again. "In this way Heaven entrusted the family of Cicero the final acts in the punishment of Antony."


title: Mark Antony

text: When Antony died, Octavian became uncontested ruler of Rome. In the following years, Octavian, who was known as Augustus after 27 BC, managed to accumulate in his person all administrative, political, and military offices. When Augustus died in AD 14, his political powers passed to his adopted son Tiberius; the Roman Empire had begun.


title: Mark Antony

text: The rise of Caesar and the subsequent civil war between his two most powerful adherents effectively ended the credibility of the Roman oligarchy as a governing power and ensured that all future power struggles would centre upon which one individual would achieve supreme control of the government, eliminating the senate and the former magisterial structure as important foci of power in these conflicts. Thus, in history, Antony appears as one of Caesar's main adherents, he and Octavian Augustus being the two men around whom power coalesced following the assassination of Caesar, and finally as one of the three men chiefly responsible for the demise of the Roman Republic.


title: Mark Antony

text: Antony was known to have an obsession with women and sex. He had many mistresses (including Cytheris) and was married in succession to Fadia, Antonia, Fulvia, Octavia and Cleopatra. He left a number of children. Through his daughters by Octavia, he would be ancestor to the Roman emperors Caligula, Claudius and Nero.


title: Mark Antony

text: Through his daughters by Octavia, he was the paternal great grandfather of Roman emperor Caligula, the maternal grandfather of emperor Claudius, and both maternal great-great-grandfather and paternal great-great uncle of the emperor Nero of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Through his eldest daughter, he was ancestor to the long line of kings and co-rulers of the Bosporan Kingdom, the longest-living Roman client kingdom, as well as the rulers and royalty of several other Roman client states. Through his daughter by Cleopatra, Antony was ancestor to the royal family of Mauretania, another Roman client kingdom, while through his sole surviving son Iullus, he was ancestor to several famous Roman statesmen.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The "Arleigh Burke" class of guided-missile destroyers (DDGs) is a United States Navy class of destroyer built around the Aegis Combat System and the SPY-1D multi-function passive electronically scanned array radar. The class is named for Admiral Arleigh Burke, an American destroyer officer in World War II and later Chief of Naval Operations. The lead ship, , was commissioned during Admiral Burke's lifetime.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: These warships were designed as multi-mission destroyers, able to fulfill the strategic land strike role with Tomahawk missiles; anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) role with powerful Aegis radar and surface-to-air missiles; anti-submarine warfare (ASW) with towed array sonar, anti-submarine rockets, and ASW helicopters; and anti-surface warfare (ASuW) with Harpoon missiles. With upgrades to their AN/SPY-1 phased radar systems and their associated missile payloads as part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, the ships of this class have also demonstrated capability as mobile anti-ballistic missile and anti-satellite weaponry platforms, operating on 42 destroyers as of August 2021. Later versions of the class no longer have the Harpoon missile launchers, and some ships of the class do not have towed array sonar. Their hull and superstructure were designed to have a reduced radar cross-section.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The first ship of the class was commissioned on 4 July 1991. With the decommissioning of the last , , on 21 September 2005, the "Arleigh Burke"-class ships became the U.S. Navy's only active destroyers until the became active in 2016. The "Arleigh Burke" class has the longest production run for any post-World War II U.S. Navy surface combatant. Of the first 75 vessels of this class (comprising 21 of Flight I, 7 of Flight II, 34 of Flight IIA, 3 of Flight IIA Restart, and 10 of Flight IIA Technology Insertion), 70 are in service as of May 2022. Currently, 14 of the Flight III have been ordered, but another 28 have been envisioned, bringing a total of 42 for that Flight and an overall total of 117 ships for the class.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: With an overall length of , displacement ranging from 8,230 to 9,700 tons, and weaponry including over 90 missiles, the "Arleigh Burke" class are larger and more heavily armed than most previous ships classified as guided-missile cruisers.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The "Arleigh Burke"-class ships are among the largest destroyers built in the United States. Only the , (), and classes () are longer. The larger ships were constructed on "Spruance" class hull forms, but they are designated as cruisers due to their different mission and weapons systems compared to the "Spruance" and "Kidd"-class destroyers. The "Arleigh Burke" class was designed with a new large, water-plane area-hull form characterized by a wide flaring bow, which significantly improves seakeeping ability and permits high speed in high sea states.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: Its designers incorporated lessons from the "Ticonderoga"-class ships, which were deemed too expensive to continue building and difficult to upgrade further. For these destroyers, the U.S. Navy also returned to all-steel construction. An earlier generation had combined a steel hull with a superstructure made of lighter aluminum to reduce top weight, but the lighter metal proved vulnerable to cracking. Aluminum is also less fire-resistant than steel; a 1975 fire aboard gutted her aluminum superstructure. Battle damage to Royal Navy ships exacerbated by their aluminum superstructures during the 1982 Falklands War supported the decision to use steel. Other lessons from the Falklands War led to the Navy's decision to protect the "Arleigh Burke" class's vital spaces with double-spaced steel layers (creating a buffer against AShMs) and Kevlar spall liners.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The class's design incorporates stealth techniques, such as the angled—rather than traditional vertical—surfaces and the tripod mainmast, which make the ship more difficult to detect by radar. Starting with USS "Mustin" (DDG-89), the exhaust funnels are shrouded to minimize their radar and infrared signature further.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: Each "Arleigh Burke" destroyer carries two AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare (EW) suites—one on each side—that provide passive detection and intelligence. Some ships are equipped with the SLQ-32(V)2 variant, some have the (V)3 variant, and the newest have (V)6. Vessels with the (V)3 or (V)6 variant have an additional capability to actively jam targeting and AShM guidance radar. "Arleigh Burke"s have expendable infrared, chaff, and Nulka decoys for foiling incoming anti-ship missiles. For defeating incoming torpedoes, the class features Nixie countermeasures.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: A Collective Protection System makes the "Arleigh Burke" class the first U.S. warships designed with an air-filtration system against nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare (NBC). Other NBC defenses include air-locked hatches, pressurized compartments, and an external "countermeasure wash down system".


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The "Arleigh Burke" class is a set of multi-mission ships with numerous combat systems, including a "combination of... an advanced anti-submarine warfare system (ASW), land attack cruise missiles, ship-to-ship missiles, and advanced anti-aircraft missiles". An onboard dual-purpose 5-inch gun can engage ships, land targets, aircraft, and missiles. The "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyer is equipped with the Aegis Combat System, which combines information from the ship's sensors to display a coherent image of the environment and guides weapons to targets using advanced tracking and fire control.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: Their SPY radars differ from traditional rotating radars that mechanically rotate 360 degrees for each sweep scan of the airspace. Instead, Aegis uses the AN/SPY-1D passive electronically scanned array (or the AN/SPY-6 active electronically scanned array on Flight III ships), which allows continual tracking of targets simultaneous to area scans. The system's computer control also allows centralization of the previously separate tracking and targeting functions. The system is also resistant to electronic countermeasures.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The Standard Missile SM-2MR/ER and SM-6 provide area air defense, though they may also be used in a secondary ASuW role. The SM-2 uses semi-active radar homing, meaning that up to three targets may be simultaneously intercepted since the "Arleigh Burke"s have three AN/SPG-62 fire-control radars for terminal target illumination. The SM-6, which provides over-the-horizon missile defense, uses active radar homing; it does not have to rely on external illumination, so more targets could theoretically be intercepted simultaneously.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: Flight IIA and III destroyers carry RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missiles, which provide medium-range defense against missiles and aircraft up to a range of about 27 nmi and are small enough to be quad-packed into a single Mk 41 VLS cell. They are also capable of targeting other ships. ESSM Block 1 uses semi-active radar homing, guided similarly to the SM-2. The new ESSM Block 2, among other improvements, features active radar homing like the SM-6, and it was scheduled for Initial Operating Capability (IOC) in 2020. Some ships (, , , , , , , ) are equipped with the SeaRAM CIWS to improve their self-defense.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The SM-3, SM-6, and SM-2ER Block IV provide Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), the SM-3 being a dedicated ballistic missile interceptor, and the latter two having terminal phase anti-ballistic capability. So vital has the Aegis BMD role of the class become that all ships of the class are being updated with BMD capability. The first 28 Flight I and Flight II ships were upgraded from 2007–2014. Flight III ships will be delivered from 2023 with improved BMD capabilities and new AN/SPY-6 3D radars. Flight IIA ships are also planned to receive these upgrades with an AN/SPY-6 radar retrofit starting from 2022.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: Flights I and II carry stand-alone Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers for a total of 4 to 8 Harpoons, giving them an anti-ship capability with a range in excess of .


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The class can perform strategic land strikes with VLS-launched Tomahawks. With the development of the Tomahawk Block V, all existing Block IV Tomahawks carried will be converted to the Block V version to become dual-role missiles with anti-ship capability in addition to their land attack role. The Tomahawk Block Va version is called the Maritime Strike version, and the Block Vb version features the Joint Multi-Effects Warhead System.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: "Arleigh Burke"-class ships feature the Navy's latest AN/SQQ-89 anti-submarine warfare combat system, which is integrated with Aegis. It encompasses the AN/SQS-53C bow-mounted sonar and AN/SQR-19 or TB-37U towed array sonar (though several Flight IIA ships do not have a towed array). The ships carry standoff RUM-139 anti-submarine rockets, which have a range of 22 km and carry the Mark 54 ASW torpedo. For short-range defense against submarines, they have two Mark 32 triple torpedo tubes—one to the port side and one to the starboard side—that can fire the Mark 46, Mark 50, and Mark 54 ASW torpedoes. The ships can detect anti-ship mines at a range of about 1,400 meters.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: All ships of the class are fitted with at least one Phalanx close-in weapon system (CIWS), which provides point defense against air and surface threats. They also carry two 25 mm Mk 38 Machine Gun Systems, one on each side of the ship. They are designed to counter fast surface craft. There are numerous mounts for crew-served weapons like the M2 Browning.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: Located on the forward deck is the 5-inch (127 mm) Mark 45 gun. The Mark 45 Mod 2 variant, with a barrel length of 54 calibers (), is installed on ship hull numbers DDG-51 – DDG-80 (30 ships). Hull numbers beginning with DDG-81 employ the Mark 45 Mod 4 variant, which has a barrel length of 62 calibers (). The 5-inch Mark 45 gun, directed by the Mark 34 Gun Weapon System (GWS), is capable of use in anti-ship and close-in anti-aircraft roles, as well as naval gunfire support (NGFS) supporting forces ashore, with a range of up to and capable of firing 16–20 rounds per minute. The Mark 45 gun on the "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyer has an ammunition stowage of 680 shells.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: Flights IIA and III are equipped with two hangars for stowing MH-60 helicopters. Their Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System (LAMPS) helicopter system improves the ship's capabilities against submarines and surface ships by enabling the MH-60 to serve as a platform for monitoring submarines and surface ships, launching torpedoes and missiles against them, and providing fire support during insertions/extractions with machine guns and Hellfire anti-armor guided missiles. The helicopters also serve in a utility role, able to perform ship replenishment, search and rescue, medical evacuation, communications relay, and naval gunfire spotting and controlling.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In March 2022, an "Arleigh Burke" destroyer was deployed with an AAI Aerosonde Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The aircraft is being demonstrated for Flight I and II ships, which do not have accommodations for permanently storing helicopters. The Aerosonde has a small enough footprint to be stowed away on those destroyers. It can perform missions such as ISR at a much lower cost compared to manned helicopters.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In 1980, the U.S. Navy initiated design studies with seven contractors. By 1983, the number of competitors had been reduced to three: Bath Iron Works, Todd Shipyards, and Ingalls Shipbuilding. On 3 April 1985, Bath Iron Works received a US$321.9 million contract to build the first of class, USS "Arleigh Burke". Gibbs & Cox was awarded the contract to be the lead ship design agent. The total cost of the first ship was put at US$1.1 billion, the other US$778 million being for the ship's weapons systems. She was laid down by the Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine, on 6 December 1988, and launched on 16 September 1989 by Mrs. Arleigh Burke. The Admiral himself was present at her commissioning ceremony on 4 July 1991, held on the waterfront in downtown Norfolk, Virginia.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The Flight II "Arleigh Burke" ships have the following improvements over the original Flight I: incorporation of combat direction finding, SLQ-32(V)3 instead of (V)2, SPS-67(V)5 instead of (V)3, TADIX-B, JTIDS command and control processor, and the capability to launch and control the SM-2 Extended Range Block IV.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The Flight IIA "Arleigh Burke" ships feature several changes, including both the addition and removal of systems. Among the additions are two hangars for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters and a new, longer 5-inch/62-caliber (127 mm) Mark 45 Mod 4 naval gun (installed onto and later ships). Retractable missile loading cranes on the forward and aft VLS were replaced with a total of 6 additional missile cells. Later Flight IIA ships starting with use the Sperry Marine BridgeMaster E as their navigation radar instead of the AN/SPS-73(V)12. USS "Mustin" and onwards have a modified funnel design that buries the funnels within the superstructure as a signature-reduction measure. The use of the improved SPY-1D(V) radar, starting with , enhanced their ability to filter out clutter and resist electronic attack. Systems omitted from Flight IIA are the Harpoon missile launchers and the AN/SQR-19 TACTAS (tactical towed array sonar), and starting with , the forward Phalanx CIWS.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: DDG-68 to DDG-84 were built with AN/SLQ-32(V)3 EW suites, and other destroyers were built with the (V)2 variant. Whereas (V)2 has only passive detection capabilities, (V)3 features an active electronic countermeasures component. Many (V)2 suites have since been upgraded to (V)3. The AN/SLQ-32 is currently being upgraded under the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP). The SEWIP Block 2 (AN/SLQ-32(V)6) features improved electronic support capability, and it was first installed on "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyers in 2014. As of 2022, it is in full-rate production for installation on the latest "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyers and for retrofit on existing ones, replacing their existing (V)2 and (V)3 equipment. The SEWIP Block 3 (AN/SLQ-32(V)7) will give ships improved electronic attack capability and is in low-rate initial production as of 2022.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: A number of Flight IIA ships were constructed without any Phalanx CIWS because of the planned Evolved SeaSparrow Missile; the Navy had initially decided that ESSM made Phalanx redundant. However, the Navy later changed its mind and decided to retrofit all IIA ships to carry at least one Phalanx CIWS by 2013.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The experimental 60 kW High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) underwent land-based testing from August 2021 to March 2022. In August 2022, became the first ship to be equipped with the system. It is expected that "Preble" will begin at-sea testing of the HELIOS in FY2023.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: USS "Pinckney", , , , , and have superstructure differences to accommodate the Remote Mine-hunting System (RMS). Additionally, the Mk 32 torpedo tubes were repositioned from amidships to the aft missile deck.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In an effort to address congressional concerns over the retirement of the , the Navy began a modernization program for the "Arleigh Burke"s aimed at improving their gun systems. This modernization was to include an extension of the range of the guns on the Flight I "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyers ("Arleigh Burke" to "Ross") with extended range guided munitions (ERGMs) that would have given the guns a range of . However, the ERGM was canceled in 2008.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The current modernization program is designed to provide a comprehensive mid-life upgrade to ensure that the class remains effective. Reduced manning, increased mission effectiveness, and reduced total cost—including construction, maintenance, and operation—are the goals of the modernization program. Modernization technologies were integrated during the construction of DDG-111 and 112, and they are planned to be retrofitted into DDG Flight I and II ships during in-service overhaul periods. The first phase will update the hull, mechanical, and electrical systems, while the second phase will introduce an open architecture computing environment (OACE). The result will be improved capability in both BMD and littoral combat. By 2018, all "Arleigh Burke"-class ships homeported in the Western Pacific will have upgraded ASW systems, including the new AN/SQR-20, renamed the TB-37U, Multi-Function Towed Array (MFTA) sonar systems.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The Navy is also upgrading the ships' ability to process data. Beginning with , the Navy is installing an internet protocol (IP)-based data backbone, which enhances the ship's ability to handle video. "Spruance" is the first destroyer to be fitted with the Boeing Company's gigabit Ethernet data multiplex system (GEDMS).


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In July 2010, BAE Systems announced that they had been awarded a contract to modernize 11 ships. In May 2014, Sam LaGrone reported that 21 of the 28 Flight I/II "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyers would not receive a mid-life upgrade that included electronics and Aegis Baseline 9 software for SM-6 compatibility; instead, they would retain the basic BMD 3.6.1 software in a $170 million upgrade concentrating on mechanical systems, and on some ships, their anti-submarine suite. Seven Flight I ships—DDG 51–53, 57, 61, 65, 69—received the full US$270m Baseline 9 upgrade. Deputy of surface warfare Dave McFarland said that this change was due to the budget cuts in the Budget Control Act of 2011.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In 2016, the Navy announced they would begin the outfitting of 34 Flight IIA "Arleigh Burke" vessels with a hybrid-electric drive (HED) to lower fuel costs. While the four LM-2500 gas turbines of the "Arleigh Burke"s are most efficient at high speeds, an electric motor is to be attached to the main reduction gear to turn the drive shaft to propel the ship at speeds under , such as during BMD or maritime security operations. Use of the HED for half the time could extend time on station by 2.5 days before refueling. In March 2018, the Navy announced the HED would complete installation onto , but upgrades of further destroyers would be halted. Budget priorities and design issues caused the move, and "Truxtun" will be used to test the technology and see if it can be improved.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: Also in 2016, four destroyers patrolling with the U.S. 6th Fleet based in Naval Station Rota, Spain (USS "Carney", USS "Ross", USS "Donald Cook", and USS "Porter") received self-protection upgrades, replacing one of their two Phalanx CIWS with a SeaRAM CIWS, which combines the Phalanx sensor dome with an 11-cell RIM-116 launcher. This was the first time the system was paired with an Aegis ship. Another four ships (USS "Arleigh Burke", USS "Roosevelt", USS "Bulkeley", and USS "Paul Ignatius") have since been forward-deployed to Rota and also received a SeaRAM.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In February 2018, Lockheed Martin received a contract to deliver their High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance (HELIOS) system for installation onto an "Arleigh Burke" destroyer to "dazzle" or destroy small boats and UAVs and be the first time a laser weapon would be put on a warship. In November 2019, had the Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) system installed, which was publicly revealed in February 2020. Going from an approved idea to installation in two and a half years, ODIN differs from the XN-1 LaWS previously mounted on from 2014 to 2017 in that it functions as a dazzler, the first operational employment of such a stand-alone system, which blinds or destroys delicate optical sensors on drones rather than fully shooting down the aircraft. HELIOS was delivered to the Navy in August 2022 and installed on the . It is a "60+ kW"-class laser that can be scaled up to 120 kW and is expected to start conducting at-sea tests in fiscal 2023. At 60 kW, it can engage targets up to away.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In October 2020, National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien said that the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) missile developed under the Conventional Prompt Strike program would be fielded on all three Flights of "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyers. However, the C-HCB is expected to be around wide, making it too large to fit in Mk 41 VLS tubes or on deck launchers. Installing them on "Arleigh Burke" destroyers would require removing some Mk 41 cells to accommodate the larger weapon, which would be expensive and time-consuming. There is some criticism to this idea, including the oldest Flight I ships needing a service life extension to justify refit costs that would only prolong their service lives a short time when they are already more expensive to operate, and the newest Flight III ships being optimized for BMD so they would be given a new, complex mission requiring a major refit so soon.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In December 2021, Raytheon was awarded a $237 million contract for integration and production support to enable the upgrading of Flight IIA ships from AN/SPY-1 to AN/SPY-6V(4) radar. This upgrade would provide capabilities similar to Flight III ships, such as providing integrated air and missile defense with the ability to track multiple ballistic missile or air-breathing targets. Due to the smaller superstructure of the Flight IIA ships compared to Flight III ships, the radar implementation will be scaled down from the Flight III AN/SPY-6V(1) version with fewer (24 vs. 37) radar module assemblies.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The class was scheduled to be replaced by "Zumwalt"-class destroyers beginning in 2020, but an increasing threat from both long- and short-range missiles caused the Navy to restart production of the "Arleigh Burke" class and consider placing littoral combat mission modules on the new ships. "Arleigh Burke" class production is being restarted in place of additional "Zumwalt"-class destroyers.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In April 2009, the Navy announced a plan limiting the "Zumwalt" class to three units while ordering another three "Arleigh Burke"-class ships from both Bath Iron Works and Ingalls Shipbuilding. In December 2009, Northrop Grumman received a $170.7 million letter contract for long-lead-time materials. Shipbuilding contracts for DDG-113 to DDG-115 were awarded in mid-2011 for US$679.6m–$783.6m; these do not include government-furnished equipment such as weapons and sensors, which will take the average cost of the FY2011/12 ships to US$1.843b per vessel.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: DDG-113 to DDG-115 are "restart" ships, similar to previous Flight IIA ships, but including modernization features such as Open Architecture Computing Environment. Additionally, DDG-113 onwards are installed with the TB-37U (previously known as the AN/SQR-20) Multi-Function Towed Array (MFTA), the successor to the older AN/SQR-19 TACTAS on Flight I and II ships.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: Flight III ships, construction starting in FY2016 in place of the canceled CG(X) program, have various design improvements, including radar antennas of mid-diameter increased to from the previous . The AN/SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) uses an active electronically scanned array with digital beamforming instead of the earlier passive electronically scanned array radars. Raytheon, the contractor for the SPY-6, claims that the 37-RMA SPY-6(V)1 offers a 15 dB improved sensitivity compared to SPY-1—in other words, capable of detecting an object "half the size at twice the distance."


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: Costs for the Flight III ships increased rapidly as expectations and requirements for the program have grown. In particular, this was due to the changing requirements needed to carry the proposed Air and Missile Defense Radar system required for the ships' BMD role. The Government Accountability Office found that the design of the Flight IIIs was based on "a significantly reduced threat environment from other Navy analyses" and that the new ships would be "at best marginally effective". The U.S. Navy disagrees with the GAO findings, claiming the DDG-51 hull is "absolutely" capable of fitting a large enough radar to meet requirements. The Navy says there is room to fit what is needed inside the hull despite installation of the AMDR requiring double the power and cooling.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In spite of the production restart, the U.S. Navy is expected to fall short of its requirement for 94 destroyer or cruiser platforms capable of missile defense starting in FY 2025 and continuing past the end of the 30-year planning window. While this is a new requirement as of 2011, and the U.S. Navy has never had so many large missile-armed surface combatants, the relative success of the Aegis BMD System has shifted this national security requirement onto the U.S. Navy. The shortfall will arise as older platforms that have been refitted to be missile-defense-capable (particularly the cruisers) are retired in bulk before new destroyers are planned to be built.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The U.S. Navy was considering extending the acquisition of "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyers into the 2040s, according to revised procurement tables sent to Congress, with the procurement of Flight IV ships from 2032 through 2041. This was canceled to cover the cost of the s, with the air defense commander role retained on one cruiser per carrier battle group.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In April 2022, the Navy proposed a procurement plan for nine ships, with an option for a tenth, to build two ships a year from 2023 to 2027. Some lawmakers pushed to add a third ship to be built in 2023, bringing the total of the proposed deal to eleven ships. This would follow the Navy's two-ship per year procurement from 2018 to 2022.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: was originally intended to be the last of the "Arleigh Burke" class. However, with the reduction of the "Zumwalt"-class destroyer production, the U.S. Navy requested new DDG-51-class ships. Long-lead materials contracts were awarded to Northrop Grumman in December 2009 for DDG-113 and in April 2010 for DDG-114. General Dynamics received a long-lead materials contract for DDG-115 in February 2010. It was anticipated that in FY2012 or FY2013, the U.S. Navy would commence detailed work for a Flight III design and request 24 ships to be built from 2016 to 2031. In May 2013, a total of 76 "Arleigh Burke"-class ships were planned. The Flight III variant is in the design phase . In June 2013, the U.S. Navy awarded $6.2 billion in destroyer contracts. Up to 42 Flight III ships may be procured by the U.S. Navy, with the first ship, , entering service in 2023.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In April 2014, the U.S. Navy began the early stages of developing a new destroyer to replace the "Arleigh Burke" class called the "Future Surface Combatant". The new class is expected to enter service in the early 2030s and initially serve alongside the 22 Flight III DDGs. No hull design or shape has been speculated yet. However, it is known that the destroyer class will incorporate emerging technologies like lasers, onboard power-generation systems, increased automation, and next-generation weapons, sensors, and electronics. They will leverage technologies in use on other platforms such as the "Zumwalt"-class destroyer, littoral combat ships, and the .


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The Future Surface Combatant may place importance on the "Zumwalt"-class destroyer's electric drive system that propels the ship while generating 58 megawatts of onboard electrical power, levels required to operate future directed energy weapons. Laser weapon systems are likely to become more prominent to engage threats without using missiles that could potentially cost more than the target being engaged. Less expensive weapon systems may help keep the destroyer class from becoming too expensive. Initial requirements for the Future Surface Combatant will emphasize lethality and survivability, as well as continuing to aircraft carriers. The ships must also be modular to allow for inexpensive upgrades of weaponry, electronics, computing, and sensors over time as threats evolve. The Future Surface Combatant has evolved into the Large Surface Combatant, which became the DDG(X).


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In October 2011, it was announced that four "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyers would be forward-deployed in Europe to support the NATO missile defense system. The ships, to be based at Naval Station Rota, Spain, were named in February 2012 as "Ross", "Donald Cook", "Porter", and "Carney". By reducing travel times to station, this forward deployment will allow for six other destroyers to be shifted from the Atlantic in support of the Pivot to East Asia. Russia has threatened to quit the New START treaty over this deployment, calling it a threat to their nuclear deterrent. In 2018, however, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson criticized the policy of keeping six highly mobile BMD platforms "in a little tiny box, defending land", a role that he believed could be performed equally well at less cost by shore-based systems.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: In October 2016, the "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyer "Mason" and two other ships were deployed to the coast of Yemen after a UAE auxiliary ship was hit in an attack for which Houthi rebels claimed responsibility. On 9 October, while in the Red Sea, USS "Mason" detected two anti-ship missiles headed towards herself and nearby USS "Ponce" fired from Houthi-controlled territory. "Mason" fired two SM-2s, one ESSM, and launched a Nulka decoy. One AShM was confirmed to have struck the water on its own, and it is unknown if the second missile was taken out by an interceptor or hit the water on its own. This incident was the second time in history that a warship fired surface-to-air missiles against a missile threat in combat (the first being the attack in 1991). On 12 October, in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, "Mason" again detected an inbound anti-ship missile. It was intercepted at a range of by an SM-2, marking the first confirmed time in history a warship successfully defended itself with SAMs against an anti-ship missile. On 13 October, nearby "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyer "Nitze" conducted Tomahawk strikes, destroying three Houthi radar sites that were used in the previous attacks. Back in the Red Sea, "Mason" experienced yet a third attack on 15 October, this time with 5 AShMs. She fired SM-2s, destroying four of the missiles. "Nitze" neutralized the fifth missile with a radar decoy.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: was damaged on 12 October 2000 in Aden, Yemen, while docked by an attack in which a shaped charge of 200–300 kg in a boat was placed against the hull and detonated by suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members. The ship was repaired and returned to duty in 2001.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: On 12 August 2012, USS "Porter" collided with the oil tanker MV "Otowasan" near the Strait of Hormuz. Though there were no injuries on the ships, the U.S. Navy removed the "Porter"s commanding officer from duty. Repairs took two months at a cost of $700,000.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: On 17 June 2017, collided with the MV "ACX Crystal" cargo ship near Yokosuka, Japan. Seven sailors drowned. Following an investigation, the ship's commanding officer, executive officer, and Command Master Chief Petty Officer were relieved of their duties. In addition, close to a dozen sailors were given non-judicial punishment for losing situational awareness. Repairs were to be completed by summer 2019 originally. However, initial repairs were made by February 2020. After the subsequent sea trials, she was brought in for additional repairs. The ship departed for home port in June 2020.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: On 21 August 2017, USS "John S. McCain" collided with the container ship "Alnic MC". The collision injured 48 sailors and killed 10, whose bodies were all recovered by 27 August. The cause of the collision was determined to be poor communication between the two ships and the bridge crew lacking situational awareness. In the aftermath, the ship's top leadership, including the commanding officer, executive officer, and Command Master Chief Petty Officer were removed from command. In addition, top leadership of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, including the commander, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, were relieved of their duties due to loss of confidence in their ability to command. Other commanders who were relieved included Rear Admiral Charles Williams, commander of Task Force 70, and Captain Jeffrey Bennett, commodore of Destroyer Squadron 15. This was the third incident involving a US Navy ship in 2017, with a repair cost of over $100 million.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The 2012 film "Battleship" features the "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyer as a major setting for most of the film's scenes.


title: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

text: The 2014 television series "The Last Ship", loosely based on the 1988 novel of the same name, is set on the fictional . Its hull designation in the book is DDG-80, but was changed to DDG-151 for the television series, to avoid confusion with the real-life USS "Roosevelt", which did not exist when the book was written. , a real Flight IIA "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyer, stood in for "Nathan James" during filming.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form of a mutiny of sepoys of the Company's army in the garrison town of Meerut, northeast of Delhi. It then erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions chiefly in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, though incidents of revolt also occurred farther north and east. The rebellion posed a considerable threat to British power in that region, and was contained only with the rebels' defeat in Gwalior on 20 June 1858. On 1 November 1858, the British granted amnesty to all rebels not involved in murder, though they did not declare the hostilities to have formally ended until 8 July 1859. Its name is contested, and it is variously described as the Sepoy Mutiny, the Indian Mutiny, the Great Rebellion, the Revolt of 1857, the Indian Insurrection, and the First War of Independence.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The Indian rebellion was fed by resentments born of diverse perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes, as well as scepticism about the improvements brought about by British rule. Many Indians rose against the British; however, many also fought for the British, and the majority remained seemingly compliant to British rule. Violence, which sometimes betrayed exceptional cruelty, was inflicted on both sides, on British officers, and civilians, including women and children, by the rebels, and on the rebels, and their supporters, including sometimes entire villages, by British reprisals; the cities of Delhi and Lucknow were laid waste in the fighting and the British retaliation.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: After the outbreak of the mutiny in Meerut, the rebels quickly reached Delhi, whose 81-year-old Mughal ruler, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was declared the Emperor of Hindustan. Soon, the rebels had captured large tracts of the North-Western Provinces and Awadh (Oudh). The East India Company's response came rapidly as well. With help from reinforcements, Kanpur was retaken by mid-July 1857, and Delhi by the end of September. However, it then took the remainder of 1857 and the better part of 1858 for the rebellion to be suppressed in Jhansi, Lucknow, and especially the Awadh countryside. Other regions of Company-controlled India—Bengal province, the Bombay Presidency, and the Madras Presidency—remained largely calm. In the Punjab, the Sikh princes crucially helped the British by providing both soldiers and support. The large princely states, Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, and Kashmir, as well as the smaller ones of Rajputana, did not join the rebellion, serving the British, in the Governor-General Lord Canning's words, as "breakwaters in a storm."


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: In some regions, most notably in Awadh, the rebellion took on the attributes of a patriotic revolt against British oppression. However, the rebel leaders proclaimed no articles of faith that presaged a new political system. Even so, the rebellion proved to be an important watershed in Indian and British Empire history. It led to the dissolution of the East India Company, and forced the British to reorganize the army, the financial system, and the administration in India, through passage of the Government of India Act 1858. India was thereafter administered directly by the British government in the new British Raj. On 1 November 1858, Queen Victoria issued a proclamation to Indians, which while lacking the authority of a constitutional provision, promised rights similar to those of other British subjects. In the following decades, when admission to these rights was not always forthcoming, Indians were to pointedly refer to the Queen's proclamation in growing avowals of a new nationalism.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Although the British East India Company had established a presence in India as far back as 1612, and earlier administered the factory areas established for trading purposes, its victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757 marked the beginning of its firm foothold in eastern India. The victory was consolidated in 1764 at the Battle of Buxar, when the East India Company army defeated Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. After his defeat, the emperor granted the Company the right to the "collection of Revenue" in the provinces of Bengal (modern day Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha), known as "Diwani" to the Company. The Company soon expanded its territories around its bases in Bombay and Madras; later, the Anglo-Mysore Wars (1766–1799) and the Anglo-Maratha Wars (1772–1818) led to control of even more of India.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: In 1806, the Vellore Mutiny was sparked by new uniform regulations that created resentment amongst both Hindu and Muslim sepoys.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: After the turn of the 19th century, Governor-General Wellesley began what became two decades of accelerated expansion of Company territories. This was achieved either by subsidiary alliances between the Company and local rulers or by direct military annexation. The subsidiary alliances created the princely states of the Hindu maharajas and the Muslim nawabs. Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir were annexed after the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849; however, Kashmir was immediately sold under the 1846 Treaty of Amritsar to the Dogra Dynasty of Jammu and thereby became a princely state. The border dispute between Nepal and British India, which sharpened after 1801, had caused the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814–16 and brought the defeated Gurkhas under British influence. In 1854, Berar was annexed, and the state of Oudh was added two years later. For practical purposes, the Company was the government of much of India.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The Indian Rebellion of 1857 occurred as the result of an accumulation of factors over time, rather than any single event.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The "sepoys" were Indian soldiers who were recruited into the Company's army. Just before the rebellion, there were over 300,000 sepoys in the army, compared to about 50,000 British. The East India Company's forces were divided into three presidency armies: Bombay, Madras, and Bengal. The Bengal Army recruited higher castes, such as Brahmins, Rajputs and Bhumihar, mostly from the Awadh and Bihar regions, and even restricted the enlistment of lower castes in 1855. In contrast, the Madras Army and Bombay Army were "more localized, caste-neutral armies" that "did not prefer high-caste men". The domination of higher castes in the Bengal Army has been blamed in part for initial mutinies that led to the rebellion.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: In 1772, when Warren Hastings was appointed India's first Governor-General, one of his first undertakings was the rapid expansion of the Company's army. Since the sepoys from Bengal – many of whom had fought against the Company in the Battles of Plassey and Buxar – were now suspect in British eyes, Hastings recruited farther west from the high-caste rural Rajputs and Bhumihar of Awadh and Bihar, a practice that continued for the next 75 years. However, in order to forestall any social friction, the Company also took action to adapt its military practices to the requirements of their religious rituals. Consequently, these soldiers dined in separate facilities; in addition, overseas service, considered polluting to their caste, was not required of them, and the army soon came officially to recognise Hindu festivals. "This encouragement of high caste ritual status, however, left the government vulnerable to protest, even mutiny, whenever the sepoys detected infringement of their prerogatives." Stokes argues that "The British scrupulously avoided interference with the social structure of the village community which remained largely intact."


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: After the annexation of Oudh (Awadh) by the East India Company in 1856, many sepoys were disquieted both from losing their perquisites, as landed gentry, in the Oudh courts, and from the anticipation of any increased land-revenue payments that the annexation might bring about. Other historians have stressed that by 1857, some Indian soldiers, interpreting the presence of missionaries as a sign of official intent, were convinced that the Company was masterminding mass conversions of Hindus and Muslims to Christianity. Although earlier in the 1830s, evangelicals such as William Carey and William Wilberforce had successfully clamoured for the passage of social reform, such as the abolition of "sati" and allowing the remarriage of Hindu widows, there is little evidence that the sepoys' allegiance was affected by this.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: However, changes in the terms of their professional service may have created resentment. As the extent of the East India Company's jurisdiction expanded with victories in wars or annexation, the soldiers were now expected not only to serve in less familiar regions, such as in Burma, but also to make do without the "foreign service" remuneration that had previously been their due.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: A major cause of resentment that arose ten months prior to the outbreak of the rebellion was the General Service Enlistment Act of 25 July 1856. As noted above, men of the Bengal Army had been exempted from overseas service. Specifically, they were enlisted only for service in territories to which they could march. Governor-General Lord Dalhousie saw this as an anomaly, since all sepoys of the Madras and Bombay Armies and the six "General Service" battalions of the Bengal Army had accepted an obligation to serve overseas if required. As a result, the burden of providing contingents for active service in Burma, readily accessible only by sea, and China had fallen disproportionately on the two smaller Presidency Armies. As signed into effect by Lord Canning, Dalhousie's successor as Governor-General, the act required only new recruits to the Bengal Army to accept a commitment for general service. However, serving high-caste sepoys were fearful that it would be eventually extended to them, as well as preventing sons following fathers into an army with a strong tradition of family service.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: There were also grievances over the issue of promotions, based on seniority. This, as well as the increasing number of British officers in the battalions, made promotion slow, and many Indian officers did not reach commissioned rank until they were too old to be effective.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The final spark was provided by the ammunition for the new Enfield Pattern 1853 rifled musket. These rifles, which fired Minié balls, had a tighter fit than the earlier muskets, and used paper cartridges that came pre-greased. To load the rifle, sepoys had to bite the cartridge open to release the powder. The grease used on these cartridges was rumoured to include tallow derived from beef, which would be offensive to Hindus, and lard derived from pork, which would be offensive to Muslims. At least one Company official pointed out the difficulties this might cause:


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: However, in August 1856, greased cartridge production was initiated at Fort William, Calcutta, following a British design. The grease used included tallow supplied by the Indian firm of Gangadarh Banerji & Co. By January, rumours abounded that the Enfield cartridges were greased with animal fat.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Company officers became aware of the rumours through reports of an altercation between a high-caste sepoy and a low-caste labourer at Dum Dum. The labourer had taunted the sepoy that by biting the cartridge, he had himself lost caste, although at this time such cartridges had been issued only at Meerut and not at Dum Dum. There had been rumours that the British sought to destroy the religions of the Indian people, and forcing the native soldiers to break their sacred code would have certainly added to this rumour, as it apparently did. The Company was quick to reverse the effects of this policy in hopes that the unrest would be quelled.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: On 27 January, Colonel Richard Birch, the Military Secretary, ordered that all cartridges issued from depots were to be free from grease, and that sepoys could grease them themselves using whatever mixture "they may prefer". A modification was also made to the drill for loading so that the cartridge was torn with the hands and not bitten. This, however, merely caused many sepoys to be convinced that the rumours were true and that their fears were justified. Additional rumours started that the paper in the new cartridges, which was glazed and stiffer than the previously used paper, was impregnated with grease. In February, a court of inquiry was held at Barrackpore to get to the bottom of these rumours. Native soldiers called as witnesses complained of the paper "being stiff and like cloth in the mode of tearing", said that when the paper was burned it smelled of grease, and announced that the suspicion that the paper itself contained grease could not be removed from their minds.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Civilian rebellion was more multifarious. The rebels consisted of three groups: the feudal nobility, rural landlords called "taluqdars", and the peasants. The nobility, many of whom had lost titles and domains under the Doctrine of Lapse, which refused to recognise the adopted children of princes as legal heirs, felt that the Company had interfered with a traditional system of inheritance. Rebel leaders such as Nana Sahib and the Rani of Jhansi belonged to this group; the latter, for example, was prepared to accept East India Company supremacy if her adopted son was recognised as her late husband's heir. In other areas of central India, such as Indore and Saugar, where such loss of privilege had not occurred, the princes remained loyal to the Company, even in areas where the sepoys had rebelled. The second group, the "taluqdars", had lost half their landed estates to peasant farmers as a result of the land reforms that came in the wake of annexation of Oudh. It is mentioned that throughout Oudh, Bihar Rajput Taluqdars provided the bulk of leadership and played an important role during 1857 in the region. As the rebellion gained ground, the "taluqdars" quickly reoccupied the lands they had lost, and paradoxically, in part because of ties of kinship and feudal loyalty, did not experience significant opposition from the peasant farmers, many of whom joined the rebellion, to the great dismay of the British. It has also been suggested that heavy land-revenue assessment in some areas by the British resulted in many landowning families either losing their land or going into great debt to money lenders, and providing ultimately a reason to rebel; money lenders, in addition to the Company, were particular objects of the rebels' animosity. The civilian rebellion was also highly uneven in its geographic distribution, even in areas of north-central India that were no longer under British control. For example, the relatively prosperous Muzaffarnagar district, a beneficiary of a Company irrigation scheme, and next door to Meerut, where the upheaval began, stayed relatively calm throughout.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: "Utilitarian and evangelical-inspired social reform", including the abolition of sati and the legalisation of widow remarriage were considered by many—especially the British themselves—to have caused suspicion that Indian religious traditions were being "interfered with", with the ultimate aim of conversion. Recent historians, including Chris Bayly, have preferred to frame this as a "clash of knowledges", with proclamations from religious authorities before the revolt and testimony after it including on such issues as the "insults to women", the rise of "low persons under British tutelage", the "pollution" caused by Western medicine and the persecuting and ignoring of traditional astrological authorities. British-run schools were also a problem: according to recorded testimonies, anger had spread because of stories that mathematics was replacing religious instruction, stories were chosen that would "bring contempt" upon Indian religions, and because girl children were exposed to "moral danger" by education.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The justice system was considered to be inherently unfair to the Indians. The official Blue Books, "East India (Torture) 1855–1857", laid before the House of Commons during the sessions of 1856 and 1857, revealed that Company officers were allowed an extended series of appeals if convicted or accused of brutality or crimes against Indians.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Each of the three "Presidencies" into which the East India Company divided India for administrative purposes maintained their own armies. Of these, the Army of the Bengal Presidency was the largest. Unlike the other two, it recruited heavily from among high-caste Hindus and comparatively wealthy Muslims. The Muslims formed a larger percentage of the 18 irregular cavalry units within the Bengal Army, whilst Hindus were mainly to be found in the 84 regular infantry and cavalry regiments. The sepoys were therefore affected to a large degree by the concerns of the landholding and traditional members of Indian society. In the early years of Company rule, it tolerated and even encouraged the caste privileges and customs within the Bengal Army, which recruited its regular soldiers almost exclusively amongst the landowning Rajputs and Brahmins of the Bihar and Awadh regions. These soldiers were known as Purbiyas. By the time these customs and privileges came to be threatened by modernising regimes in Calcutta from the 1840s onwards, the sepoys had become accustomed to very high ritual status and were extremely sensitive to suggestions that their caste might be polluted.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The sepoys also gradually became dissatisfied with various other aspects of army life. Their pay was relatively low and after Awadh and the Punjab were annexed, the soldiers no longer received extra pay ("batta" or "bhatta") for service there, because they were no longer considered "foreign missions". The junior British officers became increasingly estranged from their soldiers, in many cases treating them as their racial inferiors. In 1856, a new Enlistment Act was introduced by the Company, which in theory made every unit in the Bengal Army liable to service overseas. Although it was intended to apply only to new recruits, the serving sepoys feared that the Act might be applied retroactively to them as well. A high-caste Hindu who travelled in the cramped conditions of a wooden troop ship could not cook his own food on his own fire, and accordingly risked losing caste through ritual pollution.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Several months of increasing tensions coupled with various incidents preceded the actual rebellion. On 26 February 1857 the 19th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment became concerned that new cartridges they had been issued were wrapped in paper greased with cow and pig fat, which had to be opened by mouth thus affecting their religious sensibilities. Their Colonel confronted them supported by artillery and cavalry on the parade ground, but after some negotiation withdrew the artillery, and cancelled the next morning's parade.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: On 29 March 1857 at the Barrackpore parade ground, near Calcutta, 29-year-old Mangal Pandey of the 34th BNI, angered by the recent actions of the East India Company, declared that he would rebel against his commanders. Informed about Pandey's behaviour Sergeant-Major James Hewson went to investigate, only to have Pandey shoot at him. Hewson raised the alarm. When his adjutant Lt. Henry Baugh came out to investigate the unrest, Pandey opened fire but hit Baugh's horse instead.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: General John Hearsey came out to the parade ground to investigate, and claimed later that Mangal Pandey was in some kind of "religious frenzy". He ordered the Indian commander of the quarter guard Jemadar Ishwari Prasad to arrest Mangal Pandey, but the Jemadar refused. The quarter guard and other sepoys present, with the single exception of a soldier called Shaikh Paltu, drew back from restraining or arresting Mangal Pandey. Shaikh Paltu restrained Pandey from continuing his attack.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: After failing to incite his comrades into an open and active rebellion, Mangal Pandey tried to take his own life, by placing his musket to his chest and pulling the trigger with his toe. He managed only to wound himself. He was court-martialled on 6 April, and hanged two days later.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The Jemadar Ishwari Prasad was sentenced to death and hanged on 21 April. The regiment was disbanded and stripped of its uniforms because it was felt that it harboured ill-feelings towards its superiors, particularly after this incident. Shaikh Paltu was promoted to the rank of havildar in the Bengal Army, but was murdered shortly before the 34th BNI dispersed.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Sepoys in other regiments thought these punishments were harsh. The demonstration of disgrace during the formal disbanding helped foment the rebellion in view of some historians. Disgruntled ex-sepoys returned home to Awadh with a desire for revenge.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: During April, there was unrest and fires at Agra, Allahabad and Ambala. At Ambala in particular, which was a large military cantonment where several units had been collected for their annual musketry practice, it was clear to General Anson, Commander-in-Chief of the Bengal Army, that some sort of rebellion over the cartridges was imminent. Despite the objections of the civilian Governor-General's staff, he agreed to postpone the musketry practice and allow a new drill by which the soldiers tore the cartridges with their fingers rather than their teeth. However, he issued no general orders making this standard practice throughout the Bengal Army and, rather than remain at Ambala to defuse or overawe potential trouble, he then proceeded to Simla, the cool "hill station" where many high officials spent the summer.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Although there was no open revolt at Ambala, there was widespread arson during late April. Barrack buildings (especially those belonging to soldiers who had used the Enfield cartridges) and British officers' bungalows were set on fire.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: At Meerut, a large military cantonment, 2,357 Indian sepoys and 2,038 British soldiers were stationed along with 12 British-manned guns. The station held one of the largest concentrations of British troops in India and this was later to be cited as evidence that the original rising was a spontaneous outbreak rather than a pre-planned plot.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Although the state of unrest within the Bengal Army was well known, on 24 April Lieutenant Colonel George Carmichael-Smyth, the unsympathetic commanding officer of the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry, ordered 90 of his men to parade and perform firing drills. All except five of the men on parade refused to accept their cartridges. On 9 May, the remaining 85 men were court martialled, and most were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour. Eleven comparatively young soldiers were given five years' imprisonment. The entire garrison was paraded and watched as the condemned men were stripped of their uniforms and placed in shackles. As they were marched off to jail, the condemned soldiers berated their comrades for failing to support them.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The next day was Sunday. Some Indian soldiers warned off-duty junior British officers that plans were afoot to release the imprisoned soldiers by force, but the senior officers to whom this was reported took no action. There was also unrest in the city of Meerut itself, with angry protests in the bazaar and some buildings being set on fire. In the evening, most British officers were preparing to attend church, while many of the British soldiers were off duty and had gone into canteens or into the bazaar in Meerut. The Indian troops, led by the 3rd Cavalry, broke into revolt. British junior officers who attempted to quell the first outbreaks were killed by the rebels. British officers' and civilians' quarters were attacked, and four civilian men, eight women and eight children were killed. Crowds in the bazaar attacked off-duty soldiers there. About 50 Indian civilians, some of them officers' servants who tried to defend or conceal their employers, were killed by the sepoys. While the action of the sepoys in freeing their 85 imprisoned comrades appears to have been spontaneous, some civilian rioting in the city was reportedly encouraged by kotwal (local police commander) Dhan Singh Gurjar.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Some sepoys (especially from the 11th Bengal Native Infantry) escorted trusted British officers and women and children to safety before joining the revolt. Some officers and their families escaped to Rampur, where they found refuge with the Nawab.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The British historian Philip Mason notes that it was inevitable that most of the sepoys and sowars from Meerut should have made for Delhi on the night of 10 May. It was a strong walled city located only forty miles away, it was the ancient capital and present seat of the nominal Mughal Emperor and finally there were no British troops in garrison there in contrast to Meerut. No effort was made to pursue them.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Early on 11 May, the first parties of the 3rd Cavalry reached Delhi. From beneath the windows of the King's apartments in the palace, they called on Bahadur Shah to acknowledge and lead them. He did nothing at this point, apparently treating the sepoys as ordinary petitioners, but others in the palace were quick to join the revolt. During the day, the revolt spread. British officials and dependents, Indian Christians and shop keepers within the city were killed, some by sepoys and others by crowds of rioters.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: There were three battalion-sized regiments of Bengal Native Infantry stationed in or near the city. Some detachments quickly joined the rebellion, while others held back but also refused to obey orders to take action against the rebels. In the afternoon, a violent explosion in the city was heard for several miles. Fearing that the arsenal, which contained large stocks of arms and ammunition, would fall intact into rebel hands, the nine British Ordnance officers there had opened fire on the sepoys, including the men of their own guard. When resistance appeared hopeless, they blew up the arsenal. Six of the nine officers survived, but the blast killed many in the streets and nearby houses and other buildings. The news of these events finally tipped the sepoys stationed around Delhi into open rebellion. The sepoys were later able to salvage at least some arms from the arsenal, and a magazine two miles (3 km) outside Delhi, containing up to 3,000 barrels of gunpowder, was captured without resistance.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Many fugitive British officers and civilians had congregated at the Flagstaff Tower on the ridge north of Delhi, where telegraph operators were sending news of the events to other British stations. When it became clear that the help expected from Meerut was not coming, they made their way in carriages to Karnal. Those who became separated from the main body or who could not reach the Flagstaff Tower also set out for Karnal on foot. Some were helped by villagers on the way; others were killed.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The next day, Bahadur Shah held his first formal court for many years. It was attended by many excited sepoys. The King was alarmed by the turn events had taken, but eventually accepted the sepoys' allegiance and agreed to give his countenance to the rebellion. On 16 May, up to 50 British who had been held prisoner in the palace or had been discovered hiding in the city were killed by some of the King's servants under a peepul tree in a courtyard outside the palace.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The news of the events at Meerut and Delhi spread rapidly, provoking uprisings among sepoys and disturbances in many districts. In many cases, it was the behaviour of British military and civilian authorities themselves which precipitated disorder. Learning of the fall of Delhi, many Company administrators hastened to remove themselves, their families and servants to places of safety. At Agra, from Delhi, no fewer than 6,000 assorted non-combatants converged on the Fort.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The military authorities also reacted in disjointed manner. Some officers trusted their sepoys, but others tried to disarm them to forestall potential uprisings. At Benares and Allahabad, the disarmings were bungled, also leading to local revolts.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: In 1857, the Bengal Army had 86,000 men, of which 12,000 were British, 16,000 Sikh and 1,500 Gurkha. There were 311,000 native soldiers in India altogether, 40,160 British soldiers (including units of the British Army) and 5,362 officers. Fifty-four of the Bengal Army's 74 regular Native Infantry Regiments mutinied, but some were immediately destroyed or broke up, with their sepoys drifting away to their homes. A number of the remaining 20 regiments were disarmed or disbanded to prevent or forestall mutiny. Only twelve of the original Bengal Native Infantry regiments survived to pass into the new Indian Army. All ten of the Bengal Light Cavalry regiments mutinied.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The Bengal Army also contained 29 irregular cavalry and 42 irregular infantry regiments. Of these, a substantial contingent from the recently annexed state of Awadh mutinied "en masse". Another large contingent from Gwalior also mutinied, even though that state's ruler (Jayajirao Scindia) supported the British. The remainder of the irregular units were raised from a wide variety of sources and were less affected by the concerns of mainstream Indian society. Some irregular units actively supported the Company: three Gurkha and five of six Sikh infantry units, and the six infantry and six cavalry units of the recently raised Punjab Irregular Force.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: On 1 April 1858, the number of Indian soldiers in the Bengal army loyal to the Company was 80,053. However large numbers were hastily raised in the Punjab and North-West Frontier after the outbreak of the Rebellion.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The Bombay army had three mutinies in its 29 regiments, whilst the Madras army had none at all, although elements of one of its 52 regiments refused to volunteer for service in Bengal. Nonetheless, most of southern India remained passive, with only intermittent outbreaks of violence. Many parts of the region were ruled by the Nizams or the Mysore royalty, and were thus not directly under British rule.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Although most of the mutinous sepoys in Delhi were Hindus, a significant proportion of the insurgents were Muslims. The proportion of "ghazis" grew to be about a quarter of the local fighting force by the end of the siege and included a regiment of suicide "ghazis" from Gwalior who had vowed never to eat again and to fight until they met certain death at the hands of British troops. However, most Muslims did not share the rebels' dislike of the British administration and their ulema could not agree on whether to declare a jihad. Some Islamic scholars such as Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi and Maulana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi took up arms against the colonial rule, but many Muslims, among them ulema from both the Sunni and Shia sects, sided with the British. Various Ahl-i-Hadith scholars and colleagues of Nanautavi rejected the jihad. The most influential member of Ahl-i-Hadith ulema in Delhi, Maulana Sayyid Nazir Husain Dehlvi, resisted pressure from the mutineers to call for a jihad and instead declared in favour of British rule, viewing the Muslim-British relationship as a legal contract which could not be broken unless their religious rights were breached.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The Sikhs and Pathans of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province supported the British and helped in the recapture of Delhi. The Sikhs in particular feared reinstatement of Mughal rule in northern India because they had been persecuted by the Mughal dynasty. They also felt disdain towards the "Purbiyas" or 'Easterners' (Biharis and those from the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh) in the Bengal Army. The Sikhs felt that the bloodiest battles of the First and Second Anglo-Sikh wars (Chillianwala and Ferozeshah), had been won by British troops, while the Hindustani sepoys had refused to meet the Sikhs in battle. These feelings were compounded when Hindustani sepoys were assigned a very visible role as garrison troops in Punjab and awarded profit-making civil posts in the Punjab.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The varied groups in the support and opposing of the uprising is seen as a major cause of its failure.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Bahadur Shah Zafar was proclaimed the Emperor of the whole of India. Most contemporary and modern accounts suggest that he was coerced by the sepoys and his courtiers to sign the proclamation against his will. In spite of the significant loss of power that the Mughal dynasty had suffered in the preceding centuries, their name still carried great prestige across northern India. Civilians, nobility and other dignitaries took an oath of allegiance. The emperor issued coins in his name, one of the oldest ways of asserting imperial status. The adhesion of the Mughal emperor, however, turned the Sikhs of the Punjab away from the rebellion, as they did not want to return to Islamic rule, having fought many wars against the Mughal rulers. The province of Bengal was largely quiet throughout the entire period. The British, who had long ceased to take the authority of the Mughal Emperor seriously, were astonished at how the ordinary people responded to Zafar's call for war.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Initially, the Indian rebels were able to push back Company forces, and captured several important towns in Haryana, Bihar, the Central Provinces and the United Provinces. When British troops were reinforced and began to counterattack, the mutineers were especially handicapped by their lack of centralized command and control. Although the rebels produced some natural leaders such as Bakht Khan, whom the Emperor later nominated as commander-in-chief after his son Mirza Mughal proved ineffectual, for the most part they were forced to look for leadership to rajahs and princes. Some of these were to prove dedicated leaders, but others were self-interested or inept.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: In the countryside around Meerut, a general Gurjar uprising posed the largest threat to the British. In Parikshitgarh near Meerut, Gurjars declared Choudhari Kadam Singh (Kuddum Singh) their leader, and expelled Company police. Kadam Singh Gurjar led a large force, estimates varying from 2,000 to 10,000. Bulandshahr and Bijnor also came under the control of Gurjars under Walidad Khan and Maho Singh respectively. Contemporary sources report that nearly all the Gurjar villages between Meerut and Delhi participated in the revolt, in some cases with support from Jullundur, and it was not until late July that, with the help of local Jats, and the princely states so the British managed to regain control of the area.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The Imperial Gazetteer of India states that throughout the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Gurjars and Ranghars (Muslim rajputs) proved the "most irreconcilable enemies" of the British in the Bulandshahr area.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Mufti Nizamuddin, a renowned scholar of Lahore, issued a Fatwa against the British forces and called upon the local population to support the forces of Rao Tula Ram. Casualties were high at the subsequent engagement at Narnaul (Nasibpur). After the defeat of Rao Tula Ram on 16 November 1857, Mufti Nizamuddin was arrested, and his brother Mufti Yaqinuddin and brother-in-law Abdur Rahman (alias Nabi Baksh) were arrested in Tijara. They were taken to Delhi and hanged.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The British were slow to strike back at first. It took time for troops stationed in Britain to make their way to India by sea, although some regiments moved overland through Persia from the Crimean War, and some regiments already "en route" for China were diverted to India.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: It took time to organise the British troops already in India into field forces, but eventually two columns left Meerut and Simla. They proceeded slowly towards Delhi and fought, killed, and hanged numerous Indians along the way. Two months after the first outbreak of rebellion at Meerut, the two forces met near Karnal. The combined force, including two Gurkha units serving in the Bengal Army under contract from the Kingdom of Nepal, fought the rebels' main army at Badli-ke-Serai and drove them back to Delhi.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The Company's army established a base on the Delhi ridge to the north of the city and the Siege of Delhi began. The siege lasted roughly from 1 July to 21 September. However, the encirclement was hardly complete, and for much of the siege the besiegers were outnumbered and it often seemed that it was the Company forces and not Delhi that were under siege, as the rebels could easily receive resources and reinforcements. For several weeks, it seemed likely that disease, exhaustion and continuous sorties by rebels from Delhi would force the besiegers to withdraw, but the outbreaks of rebellion in the Punjab were forestalled or suppressed, allowing the Punjab Movable Column of British, Sikh and Pakhtun soldiers under John Nicholson to reinforce the besiegers on the Ridge on 14 August. On 30 August the rebels offered terms, which were refused.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: An eagerly awaited heavy siege train joined the besieging force, and from 7 September, the siege guns battered breaches in the walls and silenced the rebels' artillery. An attempt to storm the city through the breaches and the Kashmiri Gate was launched on 14 September. The attackers gained a foothold within the city but suffered heavy casualties, including John Nicholson. The British commander (Major General Archdale Wilson) wished to withdraw, but was persuaded to hold on by his junior officers. After a week of street fighting, the British reached the Red Fort. Bahadur Shah Zafar had already fled to Humayun's tomb. The British had retaken the city.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The troops of the besieging force proceeded to loot and pillage the city. A large number of the citizens were killed in retaliation for the British and Indian civilians that had been slaughtered by the rebels. During the street fighting, artillery was set up in the city's main mosque. Neighbourhoods within range were bombarded; the homes of the Muslim nobility that contained innumerable cultural, artistic, literary and monetary riches were destroyed.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The British soon arrested Bahadur Shah Zafar, and the next day the British agent William Hodson had his sons Mirza Mughal, Mirza Khizr Sultan, and grandson Mirza Abu Bakr shot under his own authority at the Khooni Darwaza (the bloody gate) near Delhi Gate. On hearing the news Zafar reacted with shocked silence while his wife Zinat Mahal was content as she believed her son was now Zafar's heir. Shortly after the fall of Delhi, the victorious attackers organised a column that relieved another besieged Company force in Agra, and then pressed on to Cawnpore, which had also recently been retaken. This gave the Company forces a continuous, although still tenuous, line of communication from the east to west of India.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: In June, sepoys under General Wheeler in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) rebelled and besieged the British entrenchment. Wheeler was not only a veteran and respected soldier but also married to an Indian woman. He had relied on his own prestige, and his cordial relations with the Nana Sahib to thwart rebellion, and took comparatively few measures to prepare fortifications and lay in supplies and ammunition.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The besieged endured three weeks of the Siege of Cawnpore with little water or food, suffering continuous casualties to men, women and children. On 25 June Nana Sahib made an offer of safe passage to Allahabad. With barely three days' food rations remaining, the British agreed provided they could keep their small arms and that the evacuation should take place in daylight on the morning of the 27th (the Nana Sahib wanted the evacuation to take place on the night of the 26th). Early in the morning of 27 June, the British party left their entrenchment and made their way to the river where boats provided by the Nana Sahib were waiting to take them to Allahabad. Several sepoys who had stayed loyal to the Company were removed by the mutineers and killed, either because of their loyalty or because "they had become Christian". A few injured British officers trailing the column were also apparently hacked to death by angry sepoys. After the British party had largely arrived at the dock, which was surrounded by sepoys positioned on both banks of the Ganges, with clear lines of fire, firing broke out and the boats were abandoned by their crew, and caught or were set on fire using pieces of red hot charcoal. The British party tried to push the boats off but all except three remained stuck. One boat with over a dozen wounded men initially escaped, but later grounded, was caught by mutineers and pushed back down the river towards the carnage at Cawnpore. Towards the end rebel cavalry rode into the water to finish off any survivors. After the firing ceased the survivors were rounded up and the men shot. By the time the massacre was over, most of the male members of the party were dead while the surviving women and children were removed and held hostage to be later killed in the Bibighar massacre. Only four men eventually escaped alive from Cawnpore on one of the boats: two private soldiers, a lieutenant, and Captain Mowbray Thomson, who wrote a first-hand account of his experiences entitled "The Story of Cawnpore" (London, 1859).


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: During his trial, Tatya Tope denied the existence of any such plan and described the incident in the following terms: the British had already boarded the boats and Tatya Tope raised his right hand to signal their departure. That very moment someone from the crowd blew a loud bugle, which created disorder and in the ongoing bewilderment, the boatmen jumped off the boats. The rebels started shooting indiscriminately. Nana Sahib, who was staying in Savada Kothi (Bungalow) nearby, was informed about what was happening and immediately came to stop it. Some British histories allow that it might well have been the result of accident or error; someone accidentally or maliciously fired a shot, the panic-stricken British opened fire, and it became impossible to stop the massacre.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The surviving women and children were taken to the Nana Sahib and then confined first to the Savada Kothi and then to the home of the local magistrate's clerk (the Bibighar) where they were joined by refugees from Fatehgarh. Overall five men and two hundred and six women and children were confined in The Bibigarh for about two weeks. In one week 25 were brought out dead, from dysentery and cholera. Meanwhile, a Company relief force that had advanced from Allahabad defeated the Indians and by 15 July it was clear that the Nana Sahib would not be able to hold Cawnpore and a decision was made by the Nana Sahib and other leading rebels that the hostages must be killed. After the sepoys refused to carry out this order, two Muslim butchers, two Hindu peasants and one of Nana's bodyguards went into The Bibigarh. Armed with knives and hatchets they murdered the women and children. After the massacre the walls were covered in bloody hand prints, and the floor littered with fragments of human limbs. The dead and the dying were thrown down a nearby well. When the deep well was filled with remains to within of the top, the remainder were thrown into the Ganges.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Historians have given many reasons for this act of cruelty. With Company forces approaching Cawnpore and some believing that they would not advance if there were no hostages to save, their murders were ordered. Or perhaps it was to ensure that no information was leaked after the fall of Cawnpore. Other historians have suggested that the killings were an attempt to undermine Nana Sahib's relationship with the British. Perhaps it was due to fear, the fear of being recognised by some of the prisoners for having taken part in the earlier firings.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: The killing of the women and children hardened British attitudes against the sepoys. The British public was aghast and the anti-Imperial and pro-Indian proponents lost all their support. Cawnpore became a war cry for the British and their allies for the rest of the conflict. Nana Sahib disappeared near the end of the Rebellion and it is not known what happened to him.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Other British accounts state that indiscriminate punitive measures were taken in early June, two weeks before the murders at the Bibighar (but after those at both Meerut and Delhi), specifically by Lieutenant Colonel James George Smith Neill of the Madras Fusiliers, commanding at Allahabad while moving towards Cawnpore. At the nearby town of Fatehpur, a mob had attacked and murdered the local British population. On this pretext, Neill ordered all villages beside the Grand Trunk Road to be burned and their inhabitants to be killed by hanging. Neill's methods were "ruthless and horrible" and far from intimidating the population, may well have induced previously undecided sepoys and communities to revolt.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Neill was killed in action at Lucknow on 26 September and was never called to account for his punitive measures, though contemporary British sources lionised him and his "gallant blue caps". When the British retook Cawnpore, the soldiers took their sepoy prisoners to the Bibighar and forced them to lick the bloodstains from the walls and floor. They then hanged or "blew from the cannon", the traditional Mughal punishment for mutiny, the majority of the sepoy prisoners. Although some claimed the sepoys took no actual part in the killings themselves, they did not act to stop it and this was acknowledged by Captain Thompson after the British departed Cawnpore for a second time.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: Very soon after the events at Meerut, rebellion erupted in the state of Awadh (also known as Oudh, in modern-day Uttar Pradesh), which had been annexed barely a year before. The British Commissioner resident at Lucknow, Sir Henry Lawrence, had enough time to fortify his position inside the Residency compound. The defenders, including loyal sepoys, numbered some 1700 men. The rebels' assaults were unsuccessful, so they began a barrage of artillery and musket fire into the compound. Lawrence was one of the first casualties. He was succeeded by John Eardley Inglis. The rebels tried to breach the walls with explosives and bypass them via tunnels that led to underground close combat. After 90 days of siege, the defenders were reduced to 300 loyal sepoys, 350 British soldiers and 550 non-combatants.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: On 25 September, a relief column under the command of Sir Henry Havelock and accompanied by Sir James Outram (who in theory was his superior) fought its way from Cawnpore to Lucknow in a brief campaign, in which the numerically small column defeated rebel forces in a series of increasingly large battles. This became known as 'The First Relief of Lucknow', as this force was not strong enough to break the siege or extricate themselves, and so was forced to join the garrison. In October, another larger army under the new Commander-in-Chief, Sir Colin Campbell, was finally able to relieve the garrison and on 18 November, they evacuated the defended enclave within the city, the women and children leaving first. They then conducted an orderly withdrawal, firstly to Alambagh north where a force of 4,000 were left to construct a fort, then to Cawnpore, where they defeated an attempt by Tantia Tope to recapture the city in the Second Battle of Cawnpore.


title: Indian Rebellion of 1857

text: In March 1858, Campbell once again advanced on Lucknow with a large army, meeting up with the force at Alambagh, this time seeking to suppress the rebellion in Awadh. He was aided by a large Nepalese contingent advancing from the north under Jung Bahadur Kunwar Rana. General Dhir Shamsher Kunwar Rana, the youngest brother of Jung Bahadur, also led the Nepalese forces in various parts of India including Lucknow, Benares and Patna. Campbell's advance was slow and methodical, with a force under General Outram crossing the river on cask bridges on 4 March to enable them to fire artillery in flank. Campbell drove the large but disorganised rebel army from Lucknow with the final fighting taking place on 21 March. There were few casualties to Campbell's own troops, but his cautious movements allowed large numbers of the rebels to disperse into Awadh. Campbell was forced to spend the summer and autumn dealing with scattered pockets of resistance while losing men to heat, disease and guerrilla actions.