Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Reminiscences of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857
    Reminiscences of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857
    Reminiscences of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    Reminiscences of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857

    By Mrs Elizabeth Wagentreiber

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    “Elizabeth Wagentreiber was the youngest daughter of Colonel James Skinner of the famous cavalry regiment 'Skinner's Horse'. She had originally married a Captain Radclyffe Haldane, an officer of Skinner's Horse who was killed at the Battle of Chillianwallah during the Second Anglo-Sikh War. She subsequently married George Wagentreiber. And in the Spring of 1857 the couple were living in the civilian lines at Delhi when the Indian Mutiny broke out in the Bengal Army and reports arrived that the native cavalry was running amok in the city, slaughtering Europeans. Fearful for their lives the couple escaped with their children and the harrowing account of their time as fugitives makes compelling reading.”-Print ed.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPorirua Publishing
    Release dateApr 18, 2024
    ISBN9781991141712
    Reminiscences of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857

    Related to Reminiscences of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857

    Related ebooks

    Wars & Military For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Death Without Ceremony

      May 5, 2020

      Death Without Ceremony
      6 min read

    • Article

      Heaven Only Knows

      May 31, 2023

      Heaven Only Knows
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Women Of The Palace

      Sep 19, 2022

      At Georgia’s ragged edge stands a causeway made of earth piled by hand atop bricks and tires, long grown over with grass and sandspur and sea oxeye. It is a tenuous ribbon of stability cutting through mud and salt and spartina, connecting land and ri

      11 min read

    • Article

      'How To Say Babylon' Centers On Resisting Patriarchy And Colonialization

      Oct 11, 2023

      Safiya Sinclair's memoir follows her journey from a scared and sheltered Rasta girl in Jamaica to a strong and self-assertive woman — exploring just how poetry became her savior.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Queen “Devoted To Your Service”

      May 18, 2022

      Princess Elizabeth was young, unworldly and head over heels in love when she made a speech that would become the framework of her life. It was a jubilant time for the heir apparent, who was aching to become engaged to Philip Mountbatten, the handsome

      3 min read

    • Article

      Come Life, Shaker Life

      Jun 1, 2018

      Come Life, Shaker Life
      13 min read

    • Article

      Of British History, Britten And Puffins

      Jul 21, 2021

      AS a child, I was given a charming book called They Lived Like This in Chaucer’s England. Its drawings of minstrels, pilgrims, dogs and merry-making ignited a spark of fascination for the daily lives of people in the Middle Ages. Therefore, I devoure

      7 min read

    • Article

      Elsi, The Strange Maid

      Aug 29, 2018

      Elsi, The Strange Maid
      17 min read

    • Article

      A Confluence Of Great Good Fortune

      Sep 21, 2022

      FOR years, I defended my affection for the Royal family with a quote from the dark comedy Harold and Maude. The spunky octogenarian Maude explains her late-in-life mellowing to her troubled young friend Harold: ‘I don’t believe in monarchy’ she says,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Lady Hester Stanhope

      Nov 23, 2023

      Lady Hester Stanhope
      2 min read

    • Article

      They Were One-offs

      Apr 6, 2022

      HOW I wish I’d written this book! Matthew Kelly celebrates four women whose work created the organisations and attitudes to conservation we take for granted today. Two are well known, two are not; all their stories enrich us. The well-known two are O

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Gift of Doukhoborism

      Mar 15, 2024

      The Gift of Doukhoborism
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Modest Man

      Oct 17, 2019

      The Modest Man
      5 min read

    • Article

      Fredericksburg’s Wounded Warriors

      Jul 11, 2023

      Fredericksburg’s Wounded Warriors
      6 min read

    • Article

      Faith Healing

      Jun 19, 2023

      Faith Healing
      3 min read

    • Article

      Coleridge Comes Home

      Oct 19, 2022

      On 21st October, a statue of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) will be unveiled, 250 years to the day since his birth in 1772. It will stand in the local church in his small, thriving home town: Ottery St Mary, tucked away in a pocket of countrysid

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Curate At Christmas

      Nov 15, 2022

      A Curate At Christmas
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Martyr for Philosophy

      Jul 16, 2020

      A Martyr for Philosophy
      8 min read

    • Article

      Black Turtlenecks, Hoop Earrings

      Jun 1, 2021

      Black Turtlenecks, Hoop Earrings
      18 min read

    • Article

      In Praise Of Decency

      Oct 12, 2022

      In Praise Of Decency
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Reminiscences of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Reminiscences of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 - Mrs Elizabeth Wagentreiber

      cover.jpgimg1.png

      © Porirua Publishing 2024, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

      INTRODUCTION FROM MEMOIRS OF COLONEL JAMES SKINNER, C.B. 3

      OUR ESCAPE FROM DELHI. 7

      Mrs. Leeson’s Narrative. 34

      REMINISCENCES OF THE SEPOY REBELLION OF 1857.

      BY

      MISS FLORENCE WAGENTREIBER.

      INTRODUCTION FROM MEMOIRS OF COLONEL JAMES SKINNER, C.B.

      The name of Colonel James Skinner or Sikander as the natives called him (the sobriquet being given him by the men of his own Regiment, who compared him to Alexander the Great) is universally known throughout India as one who took an active part in the most stirring events of our early struggles in the country, and fought his way through that disturbed period—a true Soldier of fortune"—and won renown and the success he so richly deserved.

      There were few whom duty or business led to Delhi or Hansi (the headquarters of his Regiment) that did not in some manner experience his kindness and hospitality. His warm-hearted liberality and generosity seldom failed to gain him the love and friendship of those with whom he had any intercourse; while his enterprising gallantry and indefatigable zeal always secured the praise of his military superiors.

      Thrown in early youth amongst scenes of high excitement, daring and adventure—of military pomp and eastern magnificence; at one time struggling with danger, privation, and fatigue—at others revelling in the short-lived profusion, and reckless enjoyment purchased by victory and success, he became the creature of the times and circumstances in which his precarious life was passed; and even when the changes in his eventful career brought him back into contact with his countrymen, there still hung around him an air of barbaric splendour acquired by his Asiatic habits which invested him with an interest that few failed to sympathise with as striking and attractive. No one, indeed, especially those possessed of any military enthusiasm could look upon old Sikander at the head of his fine corps of horsemen, his yellow boys, as they were named from their yellow uniforms—and witness their martial air as they careered about in their wild and rapid manœuvres, without admitting that they were a gallant band—that as irregulars they were unequalled in India, and that the leader and men were worthy of each other.

      Few were more deeply imbued with real Christian feeling and charity; but thrown as he was at a very early age into a career of incessant activity, and chiefly amongst people of other creeds, it can scarcely be imagined that his notions of religion were as strictly orthodox and well understood as if he had remained entirely in Christian society until a more mature age. But the good soil was there, nor was the good seed wanting. He had his Bible, and he read it in the meek and earnest simplicity which was so much his characteristic. Even the society of the more respectable natives around him served to nourish his innate piety. For seeing them zealous in their own religion, mistaken as it was, he felt that he should not be the less so in the superior faith in which he had been born and bred.

      As years rolled on, and his intercourse with European society increased, and quieter times gave more leisure for thought and reflection, the religious bent of his mind had more play to operate freely. He read and conversed more with those qualified to instruct him; and that he had done so with effect, and made progress in the doctrines of the British Church is certain, since he was confirmed by the Bishop in 1836, at which time also his church was consecrated.

      Amongst the chief objects which he desired to accomplish and which he at length attained was the erection of this Episcopal Church (St, James’) built in token of a votive promise made when lying wounded on the field of battle near Oonearah.

      It has been said that Colonel Skinner, when he purchased his house at Delhi, found in the compound or enclosure, a mosque in ruins, which he repaired, and this having given rise to some remark, he declared that though he respected Mohomedans, and would be the last to destroy, or desecrate their places of worship, he reverenced his own religion far more, and would prove it if God preserved his life, and he became rich enough to build a Christian Church. He did live, for when relieved by the Chamar woman who gave him bread and water, in the feeling of gratitude to providence for this unexpected succour at Oonearah the vow to build the Church was made and duly fulfilled. He died at Hansi in 1841 and was buried with military honours at that place, but as, during his illness prior to his death, he had expressed a desire to be buried under the principal entrance to the Church So that all persons entering might tread on the dust of the chief of sinners the remains were disinterred on the 17th January of the same year and escorted by the whole of the corps and a great concourse of people to a place four miles from Delhi called Seeta-ram-ka-Serai where the cortege was met by all the Civil and Military Officers of the station, with a great multitude from the city—None of the Emperors, said the natives, were ever brought into Delhi in such state as Sikander Sahib, and an eye witness declared that he never on any occasion saw such a crowd. A funeral sermon was preached over the body, at which all the Europeans at Delhi attended, and sixty-three minute guns, denoting the age of the deceased, were fired, and on the 19th of January the veteran soldier was committed to his final resting place. Those who stood by his grave could not help thinking of the conversations they frequently had about death, and the striking opinions he always expressed and maintained on that subject: We are just like seed which vegetates when cast into the earth; and we return from whence we came.

      My mother was the youngest daughter of Colonel James Skinner.

      Colonel Skinner had five sons and two daughters—of his sons the eldest (James) entered the army at an early age and served under his father in Skinner’s Horse.

      The second (Hercules) served under the Nizam of Hyderabad as Captain in one of his Regiments. The three others (Joseph, Thomas and Alexander) remained with their father helping him with his estates and Zemindari work which was extensive.

      The two daughters married officers in the British Army—Louisa, the eldest, married Captain

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1