Thirty five British soldiers of the 24th Regiment of Foot (of later Rorkes Drift fame) were killed (or died of their wounds) along with a number of Loyal Indian troops, by mutinous sepoys of the 14th Bengal Native Infantry.

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 Brahmins and Rajputs of Bihar and Awadh.

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.

[3] 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.

[4] The incident which appears to have been the actual flash point for the mutiny of units within the East India Company Army related to the issue of new cartridges for the in service rifle.

As soldiers had to place the cartridges in their mouth to rip them open and cows were regarded as sacred by Hindus and pigs unclean by Muslims this rumour created outrage.

With the intent of the expedition now clear, Ellice sent half of his mounted Mooltanee troops ahead of the column, ordering them to cross the river and proceed through the low ground and waddies so as to avoid detection and cover that flank.

He then rode ahead himself to Jhelum and met with Lieutenant Colonel Gerard, commander of the 14th Bengal Native Infantry, to direct him as to how he was to co-operate with his force the following morning.

Early on the following day (7 July), as events were unfolding in Rawalpindi, the three guns from Captain Cooke's Company of the Bengal Horse Artillery and the remainder of the Mooltanee Cavalry took up positions to the right of the Jhelum Cantonment and cut off the lines of communication.

The mutineers began deploying into defensive positions and blocking the main route into the garrison but were met by a charge by the Mooltanee Cavalry led by Lieutenant Lind.

Finally, Ellice took 50 of his men from the 24th of Foot and led them in a charge, hoping to storm the enemy position, and managed to break through the Quarter Guard of the mutineers.

[13] The early success of the 14th Bengali Native Infantry was however to have a wider effect sending shock waves through the region and sparking unrest in nearby garrisons.

Gunner William Connolly, a Bengal Horse Artillery soldier with the force sent from Rawalpindi to disarm the mutineers, won a Victoria Cross during fighting at Jhelum on 7 July 1857.

Lieutenant Cookes, Bengal horse artillery, reports that “about daybreak on that day I advanced my half troop at a gallop, and engaged the enemy within easy musket range.

About eleven o’clock A.M., when the guns were still in action, the same gunner, while sponging, was again knocked down by a musket-ball striking him on the hip, thereby causing great faintness and partial unconsciousness, for the pain appeared excessive, and the blood flowed fast.

On seeing this I gave directions for his removal out of action; but this brave man, hearing me, staggered to his feet and said, ‘No, sir, I'll not go there whilst I can work here; and shortly afterwards he again resumed his post as spongeman.

Late in the afternoon of the same day, my three guns were engaged at 100 yards from the walls of a village with the defenders, namely, the 14th native infantry - mutineers - amidst a storm of bullets which did great execution.

Gunner Connolly, though suffering severely from his two previous wounds, was wielding his sponge with an energy and courage which attracted the admiration of his comrades, and while cheerfully encouraging a wounded man to hasten in bringing up the ammunition a musket-ball tore through the muscles of his right leg; but with the most undaunted bravery he struggled on, and not till he had loaded six times did this man give way, when, from loss of blood, he fell in my arms, and I placed him on a waggon, which shortly afterwards bore him in a state of unconsciousness from the fight.”[14]Mirza Dildar Baig, also known as Khaki Shah, took part in the mutiny at Jhelum and was later celebrated by Indian Nationalists.