Battle of Jhelum (1857)

Battle of Jhelum
	Part of the Indian rebellion of 1857
Date	7 July 1857
Location	Jhelum, British India (now Pakistan)32°56′33″N 73°43′32″E / 32.94250°N 73.72556°E
Result	British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom; 24th Regiment of Foot (285 men); Miller's Police Battalion; (150 men); Police Cavalry; (60 sabres); Moolantee Mounted Levie; (250 sabres); Captain Cookes' Company, Bengal Horse Artillery; (3 guns); 14th Bengal Native Infantry; (100 Sikh sepoys)	14th Bengal Native Infantry; (500 mutineer sepoys)
Commanders and leaders
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Ellice, 24th of Foot	Mirza Dildar Baig, 14 BNI mutineers
Strength
435 infantry; 310 cavalry; 100 Sikh sepoys; 3 horse artillery guns	Approximately 500 sepoys
Casualties and losses
44 killed; 109 wounded	150 killed; 25 drowned; 108 executed
	Jhelum class=notpageimage\| Location within Punjab Pakistan Jhelum Jhelum (Pakistan)

During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (also known as the Indian Mutiny) a column of troops led by the commander of the 24th Regiment of Foot was sent to disarm Bengal Native Infantry units believed to be at risk of mutiny in Rawalpindi and Jhelum. At Rawalpindi, the 58th Bengal Native Infantry was disarmed peacefully, however the two companies of the 14th Bengal Native Infantry resisted the attempt by force of arms. These two companies were quickly defeated by the British, loyal native troops and the local population. In Jhelum, also garrisoned by the 14th, the concurrently timed disarmament was much more violent. 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. When the mutineers realised that they, except the Sikhs, were to be disarmed, they mutinied and made a vigorous defence against the force that had arrived from Rawalpindi to disarm them. The following night a significant number of mutineers managed to slip away but most were subsequently arrested by the Kashmir authorities, into whose territory they had escaped.