Indian Journal: An Eye-witness Account Of The Indian Mutiny

It was a barbarous war, even in an age notorious for brutal conflict, and is known today by various names including the Indian Mutiny or the First War for Independence. Regardless of what it's called, the struggle which swept across India in 1857 remains a blood-soaked memory, one wherein hordes of innocent civilians were wantonly slaughtered by merciless men on both sides. Into the middle of this politically inspired gang war rode the "Heroine of the Crimea," for thus was the author of this remarkable book known. Fanny Duberly had already kept a horde of guardian angels busy looking out for her welfare as she rode beside her husband, Captain Henry Duberly, through the notorious and recently concluded Crimean War, the same conflict during which Fanny had witnessed the infamous 'charge of the Light Brigade.' Now, with a new war afoot and her beloved Henry called to serve, the indomitable Fanny packed her pen and sailed to India alongside her husband and his men. Though she was a hardened campaigner, the resultant 1,800 mile equestrian journey which Fanny undertook is a feat of endurance unequalled by any other 19th century female traveller. Ordered to cross the Rajastani desert, Fanny rode alongside Henry and his hussars through a sun-baked wilderness where the midday temperatures often reached 119 degrees in the author's tiny tent. The indomitable Fanny witnessed battles, dodged cannon balls, dined with captured maharajahs and survived a battlefield surgical procedure that left a three inch hole in her body. This book, available for the first time in many years, is the astonishing true chronicle of a brave woman whose eyewitness account of a terrible conflict still resonates throughoutIndia today.