<P> At Meerut, a large military cantonment, 2,357 Indian sepoys and 2,038 British soldiers were stationed along with 12 British - manned guns . The station held one of the largest concentrations of British troops in India and this was later to be cited as evidence that the original rising was a spontaneous outbreak rather than a pre-planned plot . </P> <P> Although the state of unrest within the Bengal Army was well known, on 24 April Lieutenant Colonel George Carmichael - Smyth, the unsympathetic commanding officer of the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry, ordered 90 of his men to parade and perform firing drills . All except five of the men on parade refused to accept their cartridges . On 9 May, the remaining 85 men were court martialled, and most were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour . Eleven comparatively young soldiers were given five years' imprisonment . The entire garrison was paraded and watched as the condemned men were stripped of their uniforms and placed in shackles . As they were marched off to jail, the condemned soldiers berated their comrades for failing to support them . </P> <P> The next day was Sunday . Some Indian soldiers warned off - duty junior European officers that plans were afoot to release the imprisoned soldiers by force, but the senior officers to whom this was reported took no action . There was also unrest in the city of Meerut itself, with angry protests in the bazaar and some buildings being set on fire . In the evening, most European officers were preparing to attend church, while many of the European soldiers were off duty and had gone into canteens or into the bazaar in Meerut . The Indian troops, led by the 3rd Cavalry, broke into revolt . European junior officers who attempted to quell the first outbreaks were killed by the rebels . European officers' and civilians' quarters were attacked, and four civilian men, eight women and eight children were killed . Crowds in the bazaar attacked off - duty soldiers there . About 50 Indian civilians, some of them officers' servants who tried to defend or conceal their employers, were killed by the sepoys . While the action of the sepoys in freeing their 85 imprisoned comrades appears to have been spontaneous, some civilian rioting in the city was reportedly encouraged by kotwal (local police commander) Dhan Singh Gurjar </P> <P> Some sepoys (especially from the 11th Bengal Native Infantry) escorted trusted British officers and women and children to safety before joining the revolt . Some officers and their families escaped to Rampur, where they found refuge with the Nawab . </P>

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