Background
Before the rebellion broke out, Agra was an important centre of British administration and commerce. Stationed in the military cantonments nearby were the 3rd Bengal Fusiliers (a "European" regiment of infantry of the British East India Company's army), a battery of artillery also manned by white troops, and the 44th and 67th Regiments of Bengal Native Infantry.
The loyalty of the sepoys (Indian soldiers) of the Bengal Army had been wavering for several years, as they feared that the actions and reforms of the East India Company were threatening Indian society and their own caste and status. After increasing unrest during the early months of 1857, the sepoys at Meerut broke into rebellion on 10 May 1857. They subsequently moved to Delhi, where they called on more sepoys to join them, and for the Emperor Bahadur Shah II to lead a nation-wide rebellion.
News of the revolt spread fast. In Agra, the news prompted the local British commanders to disarm the two Bengal Native Infantry regiments on 31 May, thus forestalling any potential uprising, although the regiments had apparently made no hostile moves in the fortnight since news of the events at Delhi had reached them. Nevertheless, the news of the events at Delhi and the increasing unrest in the countryside prompted 6,000 refugees (British civilians and their families and servants) to converge on Agra and take shelter in the historic Agra Fort. Although the fort was well provisioned, the sanitation and medical facilities were poor. After an uprising in the city in June, the British were blockaded in the Fort.
They endured a desultory siege for three months. Morale was poor, and the understrength Bengal Fusiliers were mainly raw and untrained troops. Delhi however, was too strong an attraction for the sepoys and other rebels. Many thousands of these moved to Delhi, where they were unable to dislodge a British force on the ridge to the north-west, but none of the rebel leaders there attempted to organise a force to clear the comparatively easy target of Agra.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Agra
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