Flight to Gwalior[edit]

The leaders (the Rani of Jhansi, Tatya Tope, the Nawab of Banda, and rao Sahib) fled
once more. They came to Gwalior and joined the Indian forces who now held the city
(Maharaja Scindia having fled to Agra from the battlefield at Morar). They moved on
to Gwalior intending to occupy the strategic Gwalior Fort and the rebel forces
occupied the city without opposition. The rebels proclaimed Nana Sahib as Peshwa of
a revived Maratha dominion with Rao Sahib as his governor (subedar) in Gwalior. The
Rani was unsuccessful in trying to persuade the other rebel leaders to prepare to
defend Gwalior against a British attack which she expected would come soon.
General Rose's forces took Morar on 16 June and then made a successful attack on
the city.[39]

Death[edit]
On 17 June in Kotah-ki-Serai near the Phool Bagh of Gwalior, a squadron of the 8th
(King's Royal Irish) Hussars, under Captain Heneage, fought the large Indian force
commanded by Rani Lakshmibai, who was trying to leave the area. The 8th Hussars
charged into the Indian force, slaughtering 5,000 Indian soldiers, including any Indian
"over the age of 16".[40] They took two guns and continued the charge right through the
Phool Bagh encampment. In this engagement, according to an eyewitness account,
Rani Lakshmibai put on a sowar's uniform and attacked one of the hussars; she was
unhorsed and also wounded, probably by his sabre. Shortly afterwards, as she sat
bleeding by the roadside, she recognised the soldier and fired at him with a pistol,
whereupon he "dispatched the young lady with his carbine". [41][42] According to another
tradition Rani Lakshmibai, the Queen of Jhansi, dressed as a cavalry leader, was
badly wounded; not wishing the British to capture her body, she told a hermit to burn
it. After her death a few local people cremated her body.
The British captured the city of Gwalior after three days. In the British report of this
battle, Hugh Rose commented that Rani Lakshmibai is "personable, clever and
beautiful" and she is "the most dangerous of all Indian leaders". [43][44] Rose reported that
she had been buried "with great ceremony under a tamarind tree under the Rock of
Gwalior, where I saw her bones and ashes".[45][46]
Her tomb is in the Phool Bagh area of Gwalior. Twenty years after her death Colonel
Malleson wrote in the History of the Indian Mutiny; vol. 3; London, 1878 'Whatever her
faults in British eyes may have been, her countrymen will ever remember that she was
driven by ill-treatment into rebellion, and that she lived and died for her country, We
cannot forget her contribution for India.'[47]

Descendant[edit]
According to a memoir purporting to be by Damodar Rao, the young prince was
among his mother's troops and household at the battle of Gwalior. Together with
others who had survived the battle (some 60 retainers with 60 camels and 22 horses)
he fled from the camp of Rao Sahib of Bithur and as the village people of
Bundelkhand dared not aid them for fear of reprisals from the British, they were forced
to live in the forest and suffer many privations. After two years there were about 12
survivors and these, together with another group of 24 they encountered, sought the
city of Jhalrapatan where there were yet more refugees from Jhansi. Damodar Rao of
Jhansi surrendered himself to a British official and his memoir ends in May 1860. He
was then allowed a pension of Rs. 10,000, seven retainers, and was in the
guardianship of Munshi Dharmanarayan. [48]