Retribution: The Story of the Sepoy Mutiny

To many Indians, it was their First War of Independence. To the British, it was a military mutiny. Either way, neither country would be the same by the time it was over. 


In 1857, the soldiers (sepoys) belonging to the army of the British East India Company were issued new rifles.  To load them, the soldiers had to bite off the tops of paper cartridges, which the men thought were greased with either pig fat or beef tallow. These substances were anathema to the Muslim and Hindu soldiers, and they refused. 


This was the spark that set off a rebellion that spread throughout much of the army and eventually the civilian population.  Before it ended, thousands of British troops and hundreds of thousands of Indians lay dead. 


“William Henry Fitchett brings this incredible chapter in British military history alive as only he can in this amazingly readable volume.”