Stanley, Peter John Company's Armies. The Military Forces of British India 1824-57

The armies of British India were, as one of their members wrote, "the most extraordinary phenomenon in the history of the world". They were multi-ethnic and made up of men of different ethnicities and creeds who, under the flag of the East India Company - 'John Company' - conquered or controlled much of the Indian subcontinent by 1850 and were victorious in all but one major war (the first disastrous intervention in Afghanistan). Four armies served and fought for John Company: the three 'presidency armies' of Bengal, Madras and Bombay, and the regiments of the British army hired out to the Company by the Crown. Together, this disparate collection of European and 'native' corps - regular and irregular - numbered over 300,000 uniformed men at its peak. The army that was destroyed or changed beyond recognition by the 1857 rebellion was essentially from the 1824 reorganisation. In the intervening 33 years, John Company's armies not only fought half a dozen major wars (in Burma, Afghanistan, China, the Punjab and throughout India itself), but also faced dozens of insurrections and rebellions, some of which involved such sustained conflict that they earned their units battle honours. In this way, the armies of British India created a distinctive military culture that was decisively changed by the Mutiny. "John Company's Armies" traces how these forces were composed and how they were commanded, how they lived and died in camps and barracks, how they prepared for war (and how the conflict in India changed), and how they fought against external enemies and internal threats to Company rule. It uses a wealth of contemporary sources, archival material, imagery and publications, including research at the sites of battles and encampments, to illustrate the composition and character of the armies. It looks at both European and indigenous forces, explaining their idiosyncratic organisation, practices and terminology. It shows how British Indian armies prepared for and experienced battle, drawing on the words and images of dozens of their members. 'John Company's Armies' will appeal both to specialists looking for the first comprehensive account of a force traditionally studied to explain the outbreak of the 1857 Rising, and to readers such as family historians who need to understand how a distant relative's army was organised, functioned and how it fought.

ages : 550 | Images : 45 colour illustrations, 3 colour photos, 9 colour maps, 184 b/w illustrations, 18 b/w photos