<P> Neill was killed in action at Lucknow on 26 September and was never called to account for his punitive measures, though contemporary British sources lionised him and his "gallant blue caps". When the British retook Cawnpore, the soldiers took their sepoy prisoners to the Bibighar and forced them to lick the bloodstains from the walls and floor . They then hanged or "blew from the cannon", the traditional Mughal punishment for mutiny, the majority of the sepoy prisoners . Although some claimed the sepoys took no actual part in the killings themselves, they did not act to stop it and this was acknowledged by Captain Thompson after the British departed Cawnpore for a second time . </P> <P> Very soon after the events in Meerut, rebellion erupted in the state of Awadh (also known as Oudh, in modern - day Uttar Pradesh), which had been annexed barely a year before . The British Commissioner resident at Lucknow, Sir Henry Lawrence, had enough time to fortify his position inside the Residency compound . The Company forces numbered some 1700 men, including loyal sepoys . The rebels' assaults were unsuccessful, and so they began a barrage of artillery and musket fire into the compound . Lawrence was one of the first casualties . The rebels tried to breach the walls with explosives and bypass them via underground tunnels that led to underground close combat . After 90 days of siege, defended by John Eardley Inglis, numbers of Company forces were reduced to 300 loyal sepoys, 350 British soldiers and 550 non-combatants . </P> <P> On 25 September a relief column under the command of Sir Henry Havelock and accompanied by Sir James Outram (who in theory was his superior) fought its way from Cawnpore to Lucknow in a brief campaign, in which the numerically small column defeated rebel forces in a series of increasingly large battles . This became known as' The First Relief of Lucknow', as this force was not strong enough to break the siege or extricate themselves, and so was forced to join the garrison . In October another, larger, army under the new Commander - in - Chief, Sir Colin Campbell, was finally able to relieve the garrison and on 18 November, they evacuated the defended enclave within the city, the women and children leaving first . They then conducted an orderly withdrawal, firstly to Alambagh 4 miles (6.4 km) north where a force of 4,000 were left to construct a fort, then to Cawnpore, where they defeated an attempt by Tatya Tope to recapture the city in the Second Battle of Cawnpore . </P> <P> In March 1858, Campbell once again advanced on Lucknow with a large army, meeting up with the force at Alambagh, this time seeking to suppress the rebellion in Awadh . He was aided by a large Nepalese contingent advancing from the north under Jang Bahadur . Campbell's advance was slow and methodical, with a force under General Outram crossing the river on cask bridges on 4 March to enable them to fire artillery in flank, the forces drove the large but disorganised rebel army from Lucknow with the final fighting shooting on 21 March, there were few casualties to his own troops . This nevertheless allowed large numbers of the rebels to disperse into Awadh, and Campbell was forced to spend the summer and autumn dealing with scattered pockets of resistance while losing men to heat, disease and guerrilla actions . </P>

Who was the governor general of india when the first war of india’s independence broke out in 1857