British Military Campaigns 1816-1858

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First Anglo-Afghan War 1839-1842

Battle of Ghazni (or Ghuznee)
23 July 1839
British Army commanded Sir John Keene defeats Afghan Tribes.

The Kabul Retreat
6-13 January 1842
Afghan Tribes launched numerous assaults on British Army with 12,000 civilian refugees fleeing from Kabul resulting in the total destruction of the British including the fleeing refugees. Out of more than 16,000 people from the column commanded by Elphinstone, only one European, an Assistant Surgeon named William Brydon, and a few sepoys would eventually reach safety. On 13 January, a British officer from the 16,000 strong column rode into Jalalabad on a wounded horse. The sole survivor of the 12-man cavalry group, assistant Surgeon William Brydon, was asked upon arrival what happened to the army, to which he answered "I am the army". The retreat has been described as "the worst British military disaster until the fall of Singapore exactly a century later."

Battle of Kabul
August to October 1842
British Army commanded by George Pollock, William Nott and Robert Sale defeats Afghan Tribes. This battle ended the First Anglo Afghan war.

First Opium War from 1839 to 1842 and Second Opium War from 1856-1860
The cause was disputes over trade and diplomatic relations between China under the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire. The Chinese attempted to control the trade of Opium by Western merchants and seized their goods and ships when the trade continued. British warships destroyed the outdated Chinese navy and proceeded to bombard Chinese cities. The Chinese sued for peace and the Treaty of Nanking was signed in 1843 ceding Hong Kong Island crown colony and granting trading rights. The First Opium War was attacked in the House of Commons by a newly elected young member of Parliament, William Ewart Gladstone, who wondered if there had ever been "a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated to cover this country with permanent disgrace, I do not know." The second Opium war was fought also over disputed trade rights which also resulted in Chinese defeat and further concessions.

The Crimean War 1853 – 1856
This was a conflict between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Most of the conflict took place on the Crimean peninsula, but there were smaller campaigns in eastern Anatolia, Caucasus, the Baltic Sea. The Crimean War was notorious for the military and logistical immaturity of the British army. However, it highlighted the work of women who served as army nurses. War correspondents for newspapers reported the scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers in the desperate winter that followed and prompted the work of Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, Frances Margaret Taylor and others and led to the introduction of modern nursing methods. The war also led to the establishment of the Victoria Cross in 1856 (backdated to 1854), the British Army's first universal award for valour. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris 1856 curtailing Russian expansion in the Balkans.

The Battle of the Alma
20 September 1854
Allied Army commanded Lord Raglan and France Jacques St. Arnaud defeats Russian Army commanded Aleksandr Menshikov.

Siege of Sevastopol
17 October 1854 – 9 September 1855
Allied Army capture Sevastopol.

Battle of Balaclava
25 October 1854
Allied Army commanded Lord Raglan and France Jacques St. Arnaud fight an Indecisive battle Russian Army commanded Pavel Liprandi.
Known for the 'charge of the light Brigade' and the famous quote 'Thin Red Line'. It was in this action that the 93rd Highland Regiment earned its nickname of The Thin Red Line, coined by The Times journalist W.H.Russell who standing on the hills above could clearly see that nothing stood between the Russian cavalry and the defenceless British base but the "thin red streak tipped with a line of steel" of the 93rd. Condensed almost immediately into "The Thin Red'.

Battle of Inkerman
5 November 1854
Allied Army commanded Lord Raglan and General Canrobert defeat Russian Army commanded General-Adjutant Prince Menshikov.

Indian Mutiny 1857-1858
This began as a mutiny of sepoys of the East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut when sepoys believed that their ammunition paper cartridges had beef and pork pre-greased. They objected to this on religious grounds which soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian uprisings.

Siege of Cawnpore
5 June – 25 June 1857
The besieged British in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) were unprepared for an extended siege and surrendered to rebel Indian forces under Nana Sahib, in return for a safe passage to Allahabad. However, under ambiguous circumstances, their evacuation from Cawnpore turned into a massacre, and most of them were killed. Those captured were later executed, as an East India Company rescue force from Allahabad approached Cawnpore; in what came to be known as the Bibighar Massacre, 120 British women and children captured by the Sepoy forces were hacked to death and dismembered with meat cleavers, with the remains being thrown down a nearby well in an attempt to hide the evidence. Following the recapture of Cawnpore and the discovery of the massacre, the outraged British forces engaged in widespread retaliatory counter-atrocities against the captured rebel Indian soldiers and civilians. The murders greatly embittered the British rank-and-file against the Sepoy rebels and inspired the war cry "Remember Cawnpore!"

Battle of Chinhat
30 June 1857
Indian forces defeat British Army commanded Sir Henry Lawrence.

Siege of Lucknow
30 May – 27 November 1857
The British residents fell back to the Residency,with a force of 855 British soldiers, 712 loyal sepoys and were besieged by the Indian forces. Two relief forces attempted to break the siege and after heavy fighting managed to relieve the City evacuating all the British besieged. The first siege had lasted 87 days, the second siege a further 61. The largest number of Victoria Crosses awarded in a single day was the 24 earned on 16 November during the second relief, the bulk of these being for the assault on the Secundrabagh.