One commanding officer, Colonel Sandeman of the 33rd who had been with the regiment for more than thirty-two years burst into tears

From The Great Mutiny by Christopher Hibbert. Page 130. Another example of the closeness between some of the native regiments and their long-serving British officers.

William Tayler, the humorous though pugnacious Commissioner of Patna, saved the town from insurrection by the prompt arrest of the leading mauhis of the Wahabis, around whom Muslim rebels would be likely to collect, and by the enlistment of the help of other natives upon whose loyalty he felt able to rely. Farther north in the Punjab, whose Chief Commissioner was the resolute Sir John Lawrence, equally prompt and decisive action was taken by Lawrence's officials - Robert Montgomery, the Judicial Commissioner, Herbert Edwardes, Commissioner of Peshawar, and Edwardes's deputy, Lieutenant- Colonel John Nicholson - all of whom had been energetically engaged upon the rapid, not to say ruthless, modernization of the Punjab since its annexation. Within days of the news from Delhi being received at Lahore, every important place in the Punjab had been secured; the arsenals had been saved; commanding positions occupied; and such effective arrangements had been made for the safeguarding of the treasure of the various districts that throughout the crisis only £10,000 was lost in the entire area. Suspect native regiments were immediately disarmed; sepoys who deserted and endeavoured to reach Delhi were closely pursued and dispersed; those suspected of being the leaders of mutiny were shot or blown from guns. No regard was paid to the pleas of British officers, whose belief in the staunchness of their men was ignored. Some of these officers, so dismayed by the disgrace of their regiments, flung their swords and spurs upon the piles of muskets and sabres which their men had been required to surrender, feeling, as one of them confessed after a disarming parade and the break-up of his regiment, that they had 'lost a dear friend whose existence was essential to their happiness'. One commanding officer, Colonel Sandeman of the 33rd who had been with the regiment for more than thirty-two years, protested that he would answer with his life for every single one of his men; and, when the order to disarm was firmly repeated, 'the poor old fellow burst into tears'. Another commanding officer, Colonel Spottiswoode of the 55th, some of whose men mutinied, was so distressed by the thought that the rest would now be disarmed, that he committed suicide rather than witness the dishonouring of the regiment he loved.