Siege of Arrah

Siege of Arrah
Part of the Indian Rebellion of 1857
Defence of the Arrah House, 1857 (1858) by William Tayler.
Date 27 July – 3 August 1857 Location Arrah, Shahabad district, British India, modern day Bihar Result British victory
Belligerents
East India Company United Kingdom	Mutinying Sepoys Kunwar Singh's forces
Commanders and leaders
Herwald Wake Hooken Singh Charles Dunbar † Vincent Eyre	Kunwar Singh
Strength
Besieged party: 68 First relief: 400 Second relief: 225	Mutinying Sepoys: 2,500 – 3,000 Kunwar Singh's forces: 8,000 (Estimated)
Casualties and losses
Besieged party: 1 wounded First relief: 170 killed 120 wounded Second relief: 2 killed	Unknown
Arrah Location of Arrah in modern-day Bihar

The Siege of Arrah (27 July – 3 August 1857) took place during the Indian Mutiny (also known as the Indian Rebellion of 1857). It was the eight-day defence of a fortified outbuilding, occupied by a combination of 18 civilians and 50 members of the Bengal Military Police Battalion, against 2,500 – 3,000 mutinying Bengal Native Infantry sepoys from three regiments and an estimated 8,000 men from irregular forces commanded by Kunwar Singh, the local zamindar or chieftain.

An attempt to break the siege failed, with around 290 casualties out of around 415 men. Shortly afterwards, a second relief effort consisting of 225 men and three artillery guns—carried out despite specific orders that it should not take place—dispersed the forces surrounding the building, suffering two casualties, and the besieged party escaped. Only one member of the besieged group was injured.

On 10 May 1857, a mutiny by the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry, a Bengal Army unit stationed in Meerut, triggered the Indian Mutiny, which quickly spread through the Bengal Presidency. The town of Arrah, headquarters of Shahabad district, besides its local inhabitants, had a population at the time that included British and European employees of the East India Company and the East Indian Railway Company, and their respective families. In addition, there was a local police force and a jail holding between 200 and 400 inmates, with 150 armed prison guards. The population also included many sepoys from disbanded regiments and retired sepoys living on their pensions. Stationed in Dinapore, 25 miles (40.2 km) away, were two regiments of the British Army and three regiments of the East India Company's Bengal Native Infantry (part of the infantry component of the Bengal Army)—the 7th, 8th and 40th Regiments. At the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny these were the only "native" troops in Shahabad district. They had been recruited entirely from Shahabad district and were loyal to the local zamindar (chieftain or landlord) Kunwar Singh (also known as Koor, Coer, Koer, Koowar, or Kooer Sing). Singh, who was around 80 years of age, had a number of grievances against the East India Company regarding deprivation of his lands and income, and was described as "the high-souled chief of a warlike tribe, who had been reduced to a nonentity by the yoke of a foreign invader" by George Trevelyan in his 1864 book The Competition Wallah.