Edward Knight's Family
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Cecil Rice continued.
... War and the Indian Mutiny – they returned to England in the Spring of 1857, and in September they were ordered out to India. This was late in the Mutiny and the worst horrors of the rebellion were over, the Regiment saw nothing of them, but heard terrible stories of what had taken place.
My father kept a diary all through his time in India, but never mentioned the fact to his family. One day, in his old age, he spent a morning making a bonfire of the volumes – and was astonished at the outcry when he said what he had been doing. However, his youngest daughter persuaded him to let her take down some account of the Regiment in India, here given –
'The 72nd sailed for Bombay in a troopship from Portsmouth, in September 1857; landed at Bombay in December and marched at once upcountry to join General Roberts' Field Force, which we did at Nusserabad and went on with him to take Kotah, in the North of Rajpootana. We bombarded Kotah from our side of the Chumbal river for a week and then crossed over in flats; the Engineers blew in the large gates of the city and we got into the town, my company leading the assault. The enemy did not make the resistance that was expected, most of them ran away at once; and we ...
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