Battle of Agra 1857
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 2 August 1857 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1857 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | India | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Indian Mutiny of 1857 | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 27.1795, 78.0211 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
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.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Agra (revision 1370431091), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Chandawar 1194 · 35 km
- Battle of Khanwa 1527 · 50 km
- Siege of Bharatpur (1805) 1805 · 52 km
- Siege of Bharatpur (1825–1826) 1825 · 53 km
- Battle of Kumher · 65 km
- Battle of Deeg 1804 · 76 km
Other battles of the Indian Mutiny of 1857
- Battle of Aong 1857
- Battle of Badli-ki-Serai 1857
- Battle of Jhelum (1857) 1857
- Second Battle of Cawnpore 1857
- Siege of Arrah 1857
- Siege of Cawnpore 1857
- Siege of Delhi (1857) 1857
- Siege of Lucknow 1857
- Siege of Jhansi 1858
All 10 battles of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 →
Browse more: battles in India · Asia · 19th century battles