Service and Adventure with the Khakee Ressalah or Meerut Volunteer Horse During the Mutiners of 1857

Meerut was the garrison town near Delhi in central India where the great mutiny broke out in 1857, after the disciplining of some sepoys for refusing to bite rifle cartridges rumoured to have been greased with ''unclean'' animal fats. Dunlop was an Anglo-Indian Magistrate serving in Meerut when the mutiny broke out. His account, based on diaries and letters he wrote at the time, vividly describes the mood on the eve of the mutiny - particularly the mysterious appearence of ''chapatis'' - the dried flour wafers that were allegedly a sign of the impending outbreak. Dunlop describes the first outbreak of mutiny at Meeruit on May 10th and lists those soldiers and civilians murdered bythe mutineers. Subsequent chapters describe him joining the "Khakee Ressalah'' or Meerut Volunteer Horse, and its subsequent service, incuding the defeat and death of the rebel leaderSah Mull. Often cited by historians of the Mutiny, Dunlop''s account, at once vivid and thoughtful, represents the reactions of an intelligent Anglo-Indian who sees faults and qualities on both sides.HIs book includes a useful appendix listing all those units of the East Indian army which mutinied.