Battle of Agra

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Battle of Agra
Part of Indian Rebellion of 1857 and Anglo-Indian wars
Agra Fort ramparts
Date 10 October 1857 Location Agra, North-Western Provinces, India Result British victory
Belligerents
British Empire	Sepoy mutineers
Commanders and leaders
Edward Harris Greathed	Sepoy mutineers
Strength
1,900 sepoys 750 British soldiers 12 guns	10,000 12 guns
Casualties and losses
433 including 101 Europeans and 332 Indians	4,800

The Battle of Agra was a comparatively minor but nevertheless decisive action at the end of a prolonged siege during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

In the early days of the rebellion, the countryside around Agra fell into widespread disorder. Many East India Company administrators and their families and servants fled to the protection of the fort. When a rebel army composed mainly of sepoys who had mutinied against their British officers approached Agra they defeated a sortie by the garrison, which was incompetently led by aged officers. However, they lacked the heavy artillery needed to assault the fort, and moved instead to join the rebels who had rallied to the nominal leadership of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar in Delhi.

Over the next few months, the British inside the fort endured a desultory siege. The British leaders in the fort took no decisive action against the rebels. When the Siege of Delhi ended in a British victory, they feared an attack by rebels retreating from Delhi and appealed to the commander of a nearby British column for help. The British column relieved the fort but complacently pitched camp outside. The Indian rebels attacked and achieved complete surprise, but the battle-hardened troops of the column rallied, and defeated and dispersed the rebels. This allowed the British to establish tenuous communications from east to west across the territories of Northern India previously in rebel hands, and to concentrate troops for the vital Relief of Lucknow.