![]() ![]() He met with Siraj-ud-Daulah, who assured him: "On the word of a soldier that no harm should come to us". Holwell wrote about the events that occurred after the fall of Fort William. The English officers and merchants based in Kolkata were rounded up by the forces loyal to Siraj ud-Daulah and forced into a dungeon known as the "Black Hole".Ī fenced display of the Black Hole of Calcutta (1908) The surviving defenders who were captured and made prisoners of war numbered between 64 and 69, along with an unknown number of Anglo-Indian soldiers and civilians who earlier had been sheltered in Fort William. The desertions of Indian sepoys made the British defence of Fort William ineffective and it fell to the siege of Bengali forces on 20 June 1756. In an effort to survive the battle, the British commander ordered the surviving soldiers of the garrison to escape, yet left behind 146 soldiers under the civilian command of John Zephaniah Holwell, a senior bureaucrat of the East India Company, who had been a military surgeon in earlier life. In consequence to that British indifference to his authority, Siraj ud-Daulah organised his army and laid siege to Fort William. Siraj ud-Daulah ordered the fortification construction to be stopped by the French and British, and the French complied while the British demurred. In 1756 India, there existed the possibility of a battle with the military forces of the French East India Company, so the British reinforced the fort. Class=notpageimage| Location of Fort WilliamĬoordinates: 22☃4′24″N 88☂0′53″E / 22.573357°N 88.347979☎ / 22.573357 88.347979įort William was established to protect the East India Company's trade in the city of Calcutta, the principal city of the Bengal Presidency. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |