File:J. R. Turnbull - Delhi, from the Flagstaff Tower.jpg

Major John Turnbull, ADC to Brigadier-General Archdale Wilson, the commander of British troops on the ridge facing Delhi during the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

One of 14 tinted lithographs by Brevet Major J R Turnbull, 13th Light Infantry, from 'Sketches of Delhi taken during the Siege', published by T McLean, 1858. First edition, tinted lithograph pictorial title and 14 plates, lithograph dedication leaf with list of plates to verso, leaves of letterpress facing each plate, original cloth, lettered in gilt to upper cover, rebacked, [not in Abbey], folio, 1858.

By early September 1857 the British had about 9,000 men before Delhi. A third were British while the rest were Sikhs, Punjabis and Gurkhas. Prior to a final assault siege batteries of guns and mortars reduced the defences on the northern side of the city. The stone curtain wall near the Kashmir bastion began to collapse on the 11 September. The Water Bastion, shown in this picture, was also targeted. By 13 September the breaches in the walls were considered extensive enough to allow storming columns to assault the city.

The assault began on the 14 September but it took a week of vicious street fighting before Delhi was finally taken. The British and their Indian allies then ransacked the city in an orgy of looting and killing. Delhi's capture was key to British suppression of the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859).