JOHN COMPANY'S ARMIES: The Military Forces of British India 1824-57

1-247680

Explores the multi-ethnic British-Indian armies under the East India Company and explains the outbreak of the 1857 Mutiny. John Company controlled much of the Indian sub-continent by 1850, victorious in all but one major war. Discusses what constituted those forces and how they were commanded; how they lived and died in camps and cantonments; how they prepared for war; how they fought against external foes and internal threats to the Company's rule. It uses a wealth of contemporary sources, archival, visual and published, including research on the sites of battles and cantonments, to evoke the armies' composition and character. Deals with both European and Native forces, explaining their idiosyncratic organization, practices, and terminology, and shows how British-Indian armies prepared for battle and how they experienced it, drawing on the words and images of dozens of its members. Contains 45 color illustrations, three color photos, nine color maps, 184 black and white illustrations, and 18 black and white photos.