| Sikh Pioneers - The Sikh Pioneers at Delhi | | |  Rear Kashmere Gate in Delhi
Delhi in 1857 - The Delhi Field Force - The Course of the Siege - Making the Siege Works - The blowing of the Kashmir Gate - Captain Shebbeare's Victoria Cross - The Subjugation of the City and the Break-up of the Force - The Casualties of the Pioneers at Delhi.
| Delhi in 1857
The Sikh Pioneers, or, to give them their full title, conferred early in 1858, the 24th Regiment of Punjab Infantry, P.I.F., having beaten off the mutineers and brought their convoy through, now marched into camp with, in more modern Army slang, 'their tails curling high over their backs'. They were a regiment in being and they were treated accordingly, for after twenty hours' rest, they 'went into the line'.
Being as yet only three companies and being the mainstay of the Engineer Force as regards rank and file, for only 120 loyal men of the Bengal Sappers remained, we find them often referred to as the Punjab 'Sappers,' forming, of course, a part of the Engineer Brigade of the force. This name stuck to them till they were numbered the 24th Regiment*. Lieut. Lang, B.E., in his diary of the siege (Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research Vol. X) calls them both 'Pioneers' and the 'Punjab Sappers'.
The story of the Siege of Delhi is so old and yet so new that it but completes the history of the Pioneers' share therein, if it be outlined.
Reference has been made to the outbreak of the Mutiny at Meerut and its spread to Delhi next day. On that day, the 11th of May, the 3rd Light Cavalry from Meerut entered by the bridge of boats and Calcutta Gate, the advance party of the Mutineer force from Meerut of two infantry battalions as well, flying for their lives lest Dragoons and Horse Artillery fall on them.
Delhi, or Shajahanpore, as India knew it, was the seventh city, and was built with its fortress-citadel palace, close to the ruins of the much older Delhi of Shah Firoze, whose Kotilah, or citadel stands to this day just without the present Ajmere Gate.
In 1803, General Lake, the Commander-in-Chief in Bengal, drove forth the Mahrattas and their French officer, beating them at Patpargunj, on the left bank of the Jumna, and rescuing the blinded Mogul Emperor from durance in what was very nearly a dungeon.
*As this is a history of the Sikh Pioneers, this term has been used to refer to them during the Siege of Delhi.
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