|
The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The Presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Government of India Act 1858 (passed in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857) transferred all three presidencies to the direct authority of the British Crown. In 1895 all three presidency armies were merged into the Indian Army. ==Early History== The Bengal Army originated from its European Regiment which was formed in 1756.〔Raugh, p. 46〕 The following year the first locally recruited unit of Bengal sepoys was created in the form of the ''Lal Paltan'' battalion. It was recruited mainly from the Bhumihar, Bihari Rajputs, and Pathan soldiers that served in the Nawab's Army from Bihar and the Awadh (Oudh). There were actually no soldiers from the modern Bengal region. Drilled and armed along British army lines this force served well at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and 20 more Indian battalions were raised by 1764. The EIC steadily expanded its Bengal Army and by 1796 the establishment was set at three battalions of European artillery, three regiments of European infantry, ten regiments of Indian cavalry and twelve regiments (each of two battalions) of Indian infantry.〔Mollo, pp. 13-14〕 In 1824 the Bengal Army underwent reorganisation, with the regular infantry being grouped into 68 single battalion regiments numbered according to their date of establishment. Nine additional infantry regiments were subsequently raised, though several existing units were disbanded between 1826 and 1843. A new feature in the Bengal Army was the creation of irregular infantry and cavalry regiments during the 1840s.〔Mollo, pp. 51-52〕 These were permanently established units but with less formal drill and fewer British officers than the regular Bengal line regiments. The main source of recruitment continued to be high caste Brahmins and Rajputs from Bihar and Oudh, although the eight regular cavalry regiments consisted mainly of Muslim Pathan sowars. During the 1840s and early 1850s numbers of Nepalese Gurkhas and Sikhs from the Punjab were however accepted in the Bengal Army. Both Gurkhas and Sikhs served in separate units but some of the latter were incorporated into existing Bengal infantry regiments. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bengal Army」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|