Who were the martyrs of Sikandar Bagh?

Who were the martyrs of Sikandar Bagh? 16th November 1857, most of the accounts agree that the number of dead was about 2000. But who were they? Were they counted? Let me start with some first-hand accounts. Lt. Col.W.G. Alexander in his book ‘Recollections of a Highland Subaltern,’ recollects, “This was no imaginary estimate because the parade and the field states of the whole garrison for the morning was discovered in one of the rooms, giving over a total of over two thousand men.” And he answers, who they were, by saying, “In addition to the 11th Oudh Irregular Infantry, and the 71st Bengal Native infantry, both of which regiments were annihilated, there were numerous armed retainers of Oudh Landowners, and even a few amazon negresses, …who fought like wild cats.” I have shared relevant chapters of his book in the WhatsApp group created for the homage and heritage walk on 16th November and the webinar in the evening. W.F. Mitchell who was also part of the 93rd Highlander and took part in the battle of Sikandar Bagh in his book, ‘Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny 1857-59’, records “By this time all opposition had ceased, and over two thousand of the enemy lay dead within the building and the centre court. The troops were withdrawn, and the muster roll of the Ninety-Third was called just outside the gate, which is still standing, on the level spot between the gate and the mound where the European dead are buried…All this time there was perfect silence around us, the enemy not being aware of how the tide of victory had rolled inside the Secundrabâgh, for not a soul escaped from it to tell the tale. The silence was so great that we could hear the pipers of the Seventy-Eighth playing inside the Residency as a welcome to cheer us all. There were lately, by the way, some writers who denied that the Seventy-Eighth had their bagpipes and pipers with them at Lucknow. This is not true; they had their pipes and played them [Pg 60]too! But we had barely saluted the Commander-in-Chief with a cheer when a perfect hail of round-shot assailed us both from the Târa Kothi on our left and the Shâh Nujeef on our right front.” Mitchell witnessed first-hand the incident of ‘the lady warrior from the tree’ which legend has made into Uda Devi. His is the only firsthand account I have read so I am quoting it in full, “the centre of the inner court of the Secundrabâgh there was a large peepul tree with a very bushy top, round the foot of which were set several jars full of cool water. When the slaughter was almost over, many of our men went under the tree for the sake of its shade, and to quench their burning thirst with a draught of the cool water from the jars. A number however lay dead under this tree, both of the Fifty-Third and Ninety-Third, and the many bodies lying in that particular spot attracted the notice of Captain Dawson. After having carefully examined the wounds, he noticed that in every case the men had been shot from above. He thereupon stepped out from beneath the tree and called to Quaker Wallace to look up if he could see anyone in the top of the tree because all the dead under it had apparently been shot from above. Wallace had his rifle loaded, and stepping back he carefully scanned the top of the tree. He almost immediately called out, "I see him, sir!" and cocking his rifle he repeated aloud, I'll pay my vows now to the Lord Before His people all. He fired, and down fell a body dressed in a tight-fitting red jacket and tight-fitting rose-coloured silk trousers, and the breast of the jacket bursting open with the fall showed that the wearer was a woman, She was armed with a pair of heavy old-pattern cavalry pistols, one of which was in her belt still loaded, and her pouch was still about half full of ammunition, while from her perch in the tree, which had been carefully prepared before the attack, she had killed more than half-a-dozen men. When Wallace saw that the person whom he shot was a woman, he burst into tears, exclaiming: "If I had known it was a woman, I would rather have died a thousand deaths than have harmed her." Mitchell also gave an idea about who were the Indian warriors. I am quoting him, again, “ I may mention that the quartermaster-general's department had estimated the number of the enemy slain in the Secundrabâgh from their appearance and from their parade states of that morning. The mutineers, let me say, had still kept up their English discipline and parade-forms, and their parade states and muster-rolls of the 16th of November were discovered among other documents in a room of the Secundrabâgh which had been their general's quarters and orderly-room. It was then found that four separate regiments had occupied the Secundrabâgh, numbering about two thousand five hundred men, and these had been augmented by many budmâshes from the city, bringing up the list of actual slain in the house and garden to about three thousand. Of these, over two thousand lay dead inside the rooms of the main building and the inner court. The colours, drums, etc., of the Seventy-First Native Infantry and the Eleventh Oude Irregular infantry were captured. “ Rosie Llewellyn Jones, in her book, “India’s Historic Battles Lucknow, 1857 writes, “…less than a handful of 2000 rebels escaped. It was later found that many of them had belonged to the 71st Native Infantry, which had been stationed at the Marion cantonment. Other dead soldiers were from the 11th Oudh irregular infantry. Of the reformed regiments from the king’s disbanded army, the Nadri and Tircha were prominent here with their green silk flags. British and Company troops who had fallen were buried in a common grave to the east of Sikandar Bagh, marked by a tall cross, which has since disappeared. “ Pemble in his account of Sikandar Bagh describes the scene vividly, (The Raj, The Indian Mutiny and Kingdom of Oudh ) “ Inch by Inch (wrote Lieutenant Fredric Roberts) the rebels were forced back to the pavilion and into the space between it and the North Wall, where they were all shot and bayoneted. There they lay in a heap as high as my head, a heaving surging mass of dead and dying inextricably entangled.’…Its gatehouse, pavilion was covered in gore and 2000 bodies. There was neither time nor labour available to bury all the corpses, and many were left to the circling hordes of speckled vultures.” Thus there are many first-hand accounts about the numbers and what constituted slain soldiers.